


John D. Pierce 



A STUDY OF EDUCATION IN 
THE NORTHWEST 





Class . 
Book. 



Ml 

,Hfrg 



Copyright^' . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



JU1 




JOHN D. PIERCE 



"ROM A P 



AINTINQ IN THE LIBRARY OF OLIVET COLLEGE, 
COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE 



JOHN D. PIERCE 



JOHN D. PIERCE 



FOUNDER OF THE 



MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 



A STUDY OF EDUCATION IN 
THE NORTHWEST 



BY 



CHARLES O. HOYT and R. CLYDE FORD 

in the State NORM; 
YPSILANTI, MICH. 



Professors in the State Normal College, 



YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN 
THE SCHARF TAG, LABEL & BOX CO. 

1905 






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4e<^ /*". '7*^ 

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copv a. 




COPYRIGHT, 1905. BY 
CHARLES O. HOYT and R. CLYDK FORD. 



"It is my pride to have been one to help lay the founda- 
tions of our present school system, and I want no better 
monument to my name than this.'' 



-John D. Pierce 



TO 

MRS. HARRIET REED-PIERCE 

THE VENERABLE WIDOW OF 

JOHN D. PIERCE 

AND TO 

MRS. MARY A. EMERSON 

H IS DAUGHTER 

THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY 

DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

The chief idea underlying the preparation of this volume 
has been to present to the people of Michigan a true account of 
the life and work of John D. Pierce, our first Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Almost seventy years have gone since he 
entered upon his educational work, and more than twenty years 
since his death, and as yet no adequate study of his career has 
appeared. His memory is deserving of better treatment from 
the generation of to-day, and if this book shall contribute in any 
way to bring about even a tardy recognition of his services, its 
purpose will have been accomplished. 

It is only proper to say that this study is based almost 
altogether upon original material which the writers have made 
use of for the first time, and whatever value it may have depends 
in no little measure on this fact. The task of collecting, sifting, 
and editing the data has been a difficult one, yet one which has 
fully compensated for the trouble, for in many of the papers and 
documents yellowed by age there have been discernible the 
motive forces in the life of a great man. 

Falling as Mr. Pierce's labors in education did in the period 
coincident with the beginnings of our statehood, it has been 
thought desirable as an introduction to his life and work, to offer 
some preliminary observations concerning our national and local 
educational inheritances, as well as to sketch briefly the course 
of Michigan history up to the close of the Territorial days. 
What Mr. Pierce did to establish our school system marks an 



x PREFACE 

epoch in the civilization and culture of the Northwest, and it has 
seemed only proper to call attention to those forces which cul- 
minated in his achievements, and the conditions in which they 
were wrought. The discussion has, therefore, been divided into 
two parts, — Part One, devoted to origins, and Part Two, given up 
to Mr. Pierce and his labors. 

In this connection the authors wish to acknowledge their 
obligations to many people who have contributed facts and 
material: First, to Mrs. M. A. Emerson, and Mrs. Harriet Reed 
Pierce, of Waltham, Mass., without whose assistance the writing 
of the volume would have been impossible; to Miss Jane Hos- 
mer, of Concord, Mass., Miss Florence B. Graham, of Green- 
ville, Mich., Mrs. Prink, widow of the late Isaac E. Crary, of 
Marshall, Mich., Rev. John P. Sanderson, Lansing, Mich., and 
to Dr. Daniel Putnam, of the State Normal College. We also 
wish to express our indebtedness to the Hon. Delos Fall, of 
Albion College, who has kindly written the introduction which 
follows, and who did so much himself while superintendent of 
public instruction to revive interest in the career of Mr. Pierce. 

C. O. IIOYT. 

R. C. Ford. 

Ypsilanti, MICH., June 1, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



i. 

ir. 

in. 

IV. 






Introduction 

PART I.— ORIGINS 
America's Educational Inhkritanck 
Sketch of Early Michigan History ' ~~. 
Culture Conditions in Territorial Days ^^ . 
Two Direct Sources of tiik Michigan School 
System 



TART II.— JOHN D. PIERCE: FOUNDER OF 
THE MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 



PAGE 

1 



5 
21 
31 

47 



V. 


Early Ykaks in New England . 




56 


VI. 


First Years in the Ministry 




66 


VII. 


With Tiie Pioneers in Michigan 




73 


VIII. 


Superintendent of Public Instruction 




79 


IX. 


Mr. Pierce's Educational Doctrine— The 


In- 






dividual and the State 




88 


X. 


Tin', Meaning and Aim ok Education 




96 


XI. 






103 


XII. 






114 


XIII. 


The Journal of Education 




124 


XIV. 


Mr. Pierce's Second Appearance in Public 


LlFK 


130 


XV. 


East Years 

(In Part Personal Reminiscences by 
Dr. Daniel Putnam.) 




139 


XVI. 


Quotations from Mr. Pierce's Education 


AL 






Writings 




150 








153 








157 



XI 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

John D. Pierce (From a Painting in the Library of Olivet 

College) Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Mrs. Harriet Reed-Pierce at the Age of Ninety-Six 4 

Coat of Arms of the Pierce Family .... 30 

Diploma of John D. Pierce from Brown University 60 

The Pierce Oak 80 

Commission of John D. Pierce as Superintendent of 

Public Instruction 86 

John D. Pierce's Handwriting in Middle Life . 102 

The Journal of Education 124 

Grave of Gen. Isaac E. Crary 136 

Grave of John D. Pierce at Marshall, Mich. . 146 



INTRODUCTION 



One Easter Sunday the writer made a pilgrimage to the City 
of Marshall, Mich., and visited the graves of two men, who by 
their services to the state were more than ordinarily distin- 
guished. One grave was that of the first Superintendent of Public 
Instruction of Michigan, the one man to whom more than to any 
other, the state is under lasting obligations. To him must be 
given the credit of laying the foundations of a system of educa- 
tion which, from the time of the adoption of the state constitu- 
tion to the present, has challenged the admiration of all intel- 
ligent students of education. The grave of John D. 
Pierce is marked with a simple monument, upon which is 
inscribed the date of birth and death, and the fact 
that the shaft was erected by the pupils and teachers of the 
schools of Michigan. Here, then, are the mortal remains of the 
man who in the early days of our preparation for statehood, 
when plans for the future were to be outlined, standards erected 
and a general educational policy adopted, declared that he would 
have as the great object of the common schools "to furnish 
good instruction in all the elementary and common branches of 
knowledge for all classes of the community, as good indeed for 
the poorest boy in the state as the rich man can furnish his 
children with all his wealth." 

The second grave visited was that of General Isaac E. Crary, 
a member of the first constitutional convention, and chairman of 
the committee on education, who did more than any other mem- 
ber of that body to give form to the educational system 
of the state. He was the leader in a movement which de- 
pended for its success more or less upon political methods, and 
he was able to command the attention of the convention. It may 



2 INTRODUCTION 

safely and consistently be said that without the timely assistance 
of Mr. Crary, many wise provisions for education would not have 
been adopted. 

There are three names which every teacher in Michigan 
should learn to pronounce in logical order, and with a due 
appreciation of their worth and the great part which they played 
in the formation of the state, — Victor Cousin, Isaac E. Crary, 
and John D. Pierce. 

The first one, a Frenchman, was born in Paris and educated 
at the Ecole Normale. Later he became a teacher. During a 
visit to Germany in 1824-5 he was suspected of revolutionary 
tendencies, and sent to Berlin, where he was detained for 
six months. On his return to France, Cousin was elected to vari- 
ous important offices, and after the revolution of 1830 was made a 
member of the Council of Public Instruction. In 1832 he became 
a peer of France, then director of the Ecole Normale and vir- 
tual head of the University of France. In 1840 he was appointed 
Minister of Public Instruction in the cabinet of Thiers. He 
exerted great influence upon education, not only in his own 
country but throughout the world. His efforts were directed par- 
ticularly toward the organization of primary instruction along the 
lines of the report which he had made concerning the conditions 
of public education in Prussia and Holland. This report which, 
as Dr. Hinsdale says, "was one of the most quickening educa- 
tional documents ever written," appeared first in England, and 
later in this country only a year before Mr. Pierce took charge 
of educational matters in Michigan. 

The history of any state is the cumulative history of the suc- 
cessive generations of men who have made that state. In each 
epoch of that history some man is providentially raised up who 
has been fitted by previous preparation to meet the emergency 
of the hour, and provide those factors which are needed for the 
advance of civilization. So it has been with the commonwealth 
of Michigan. At the time when this territory was knocking 
for admission into the family of the states, when a constitution 
was to be framed and adopted so that the future empire between 
the Great Lakes might be inducted into a life of continual 



INTRODUCTION 3 

progress, men appeared who were the providential instru- 
ments in accomplishing this work. John Davis Pierce was the 
man for the hour, and in his previous training, in the breadth 
of his vision, in his ardent patriotism, were found factors which 
were of the greatest importance to the future of the state. And 
it was necessary that these qualities should find expression in the 
state constitution, for without them the cause of education would 
have been hampered throughout all succeeding years. 

One or two facts will clearly show the close relationship 
which, through a sequence of cause 'and effect, connects the 
three names already mentioned into a chain, the forging of 
which has most forcefully aided in the upbuilding of the com- 
monwealth. M. Cousin's report was translated and circulated 
in this country. A copy of it fell into the hands of Mr. Pierce 
and Mr. Crary. Its salient features were incorporated in the 
constitution, and provisions were made for a State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, a complete system of elementary schools, 
township libraries, and a state university. The present volume 
deals with the life of a man, whose labors were destined to put 
into successful operation the provisions of the constitution. How 
well he wrought, and how grandly he fulfilled the mission which 
Providence entrusted to him, will be known by those who read 
the pages which follow. 

The results of Mr. Pierce's labors, when viewed in the per- 
spective which nearly seventy years give, are the glorious fulfill- 
ment of a prophetic statement made in his first annual report: — 
"To enter upon a high career as a State is undoubtedly an object 
of paramount importance. It is so because it involves the repu- 
tation of the State, and also the highest good of present and com- 
ing generations. If we would preserve inviolate the sacred prin- 
ciples of liberty, — of liberty, civil and religious, if we would 
hand down to those who are to come after us a constitution, 
government and laws, based upon the essential and unperishable 
rights of man ; if we would rear a superstructure of elements 
more durable than crowns or pyramids, we must dig deep and lay 
broad and permanent the foundation of knowledge and virtue." 

If now the question is raised as to whether we, as the direct 



4 INTRODUCTION 

beneficiaries of his labors, appreciate as we ought the great ser- 
vice rendered by this man, we must answer that toward him, as 
toward many another man of great and beneficent deeds, 
we have shown that ingratitude for which states and 
nations are proverbial. A small and iucouspicuous monument 
has been raised over his grave, his portrait hangs in the execu- 
tive office of the State University, and with that the record of 
recognition is ended. It may be said here, however, that a Com- 
mission consisting of the present Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, two ex-Superintendents, and two City Superinten- 
dents, has been appointed to inaugurate a movement which 
shall result in some fitting and worthy monument to his memory. 

Di:i,os Fall, 
Albion College, 




MRS. HARRIET REED PIERCE 
AT THE AGE OF NINETY-SIX 



PART I. ORIGINS 

CHAPTER I. 

AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 

In order to understand and appreciate the significance of the 
educational work of John D. Pierce, it will be necessary for us to 
know, in addition to our knowledge of the political and social 
conditions of early Michigan, something of the ideals and con- 
ceptions of education prevalent in Europe and in the New England 
states. We must see how these world ideas became American 
ideals, and how they were adopted and appropriated, with cer- 
tain modifications, by Mr. Pierce, and used by him as the fun- 
damentals of the Michigan Public School System. We shall, 
therefore, proceed to a somewhat cursory examination of the 
facts and principles, as well as the methods that seem to make up 
our educational inheritance. 

A nation forms ideals which are expressed in institutions. 
Institutions become realized ideals as soon as the people grow 
conscious of their necessity, and see in them a means for the 
satisfaction of desires. The world has come to see that great 
national events or achievements are not the result of chance or of 
some unseen and unknown force, but that they are builded upon 
and grow out of the past. Every nation inherits the ideals of its 
predecessors, together with some elements of institutional life, 
and with this endowment, under new conditions in a new environ- 
ment, it will evolve a new ideal by forming new associations and 
organizations. This will, in turn, be transmitted to posterity, and 
succeeding generations will repeat the process. A dominant life 
ideal may enter into the consciousness of a group of individuals 
with such intensity that freedom and independence will be 
expressed in the peculiar character of the organized State, or a 
religion, expressed by a particular creed will be realized in the 
established Church, but in order to perpetuate this ideal and 
transmit it to succeeding generations, it is necessary that a 



6 JOHN D. P1KRCE 

system of education, expressed in a school, be well organized. 

Less than three hundred years ago, certain peoples left the 
parent country in Europe and sought an abiding place in the 
unbroken wilderness of America, where they hoped to erect a 
new home for themselves and their posterity. Each group was 
actuated by its own controlling motive, and was more or less 
influenced by the home ideal. Some came to these unknown 
shores in search of gold, or were prompted by the love of adven- 
ture. Some hoped to found landed estates, in imitation of the 
home model, and some were in search of a place where they 
might be free to think and act as their consciences dictated. 
There were governments that sent their emissaries to the new 
land, for the express purpose of conquest for both church and 
state, but in no instance have these European countries ever con- 
tributed anything to American civilization. Our forefathers, 
however, remembered the past, and being controlled by the old 
associations and acting under the influence of the old institutional 
life, they formed new institutions and looked with hope into the 
future. 

It will be necessary, therefore, in order to understand the 
principles governing the foundation and organization of 
the educational system in America, first to direct our attention to 
the fatherland and ascertain, if possible, what influences sur- 
rounded these people. What were the problems, and what ideals 
of education prevailed in Europe during the three centuries of 
our American life? How had the people endeavored to realize 
them, and with what result? If they had failed, can the cause of 
this failure be construed into a motive for migration? 

The controlling tendency in Europe was a movement away 
from authority and toward individual freedom, — the development 
of the individual by means of voluntary acts originating in man 
himself, rather than by the performance of acts or duties 
imposed upon him by an outer authority. This tendency 
found a definite expression in four ways, and resulted in the 
perception, by the individual, of certain fixed principles of 
life, which came, at last, to control his actions, in spite of the 
traditional authority of church, state, or school. 



AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 7 

a) A new philosophical method was discovered. This method, 
when fully comprehended, was employed in the solution of all 
classes of life problems, and was applied to every phase of 
human activity. Descartes (1596-1650) , starting with doubt, 
established the certainty of self, and demonstrated the dif- 
erence between the results, upon the individual, of an act that 
was self active, and one imposed by outer authority. 

b) The development of science and a new scientific spirit and 
and method. While this was, at first, bitterly opposed by 
theology, it gradually wrought out a revision of church creeds, 
and succeeded finally, either in working reforms in the old 
church, or in establishing new ones. 

c) Absolute and unlimited monarchies had been built up, 
but, with the growth of new ideas and the consequent 
development of man's reason, revolutions became frequent, 
and absolutism was replaced by constitutional governments. 
Thus the chasm between church and state was widened, and 
a greater development of individuality was made possible. 

d) It now became possible for the common people to come into 
the possession of a great ideal. Each individual saw the pos- 
sibility of seizing upon it, and making it his own by realizing 
it in his acts. Everywhere there was a growing demand for uni- 
versal and public education. School systems with new and 
better courses were organized, and new books and better 
school appliances came into ready use. Great teachers were 
produced, and new and improved educational theories and 
methods were evolved aud practically applied. 

The Discovery of America, the Copernican System of Astron- 
omy, the translation of Aristotle into the vernacular, and the 
invention of printing made the free public school 
necessary and possible, and marked the beginning of 
modern education. In Prussia, the people took the 
initiative and founded schools which were afterwards organ- 
ized into a system and administered by the sovereign government. 
Under Louis XIV., in France, the state originated and formu- 
lated a system which was imposed upon the people. In America 



8 JOHN D. PIBB.CB 

tlie people soon grew to know no king, and refused to recognize 
any right other than that of the individual conscience, as it was 
expressed by the will of the people. Their government was 
organized on this basis, and universal education was the only 
form compatible with this great principle. John D. Pierce 
expressed this ideal when he said: "Let free schools be estab- 
lished and maintained in perpetuity and there can be no such 
thing as a permanent aristocracy in our land, for the monopoly 
of wealth is powerless when mind is allowed freely to come in 
contact with mind. Children of every name and age must be 
taught the qualifications and duties of American citizens and learn 
in early life the art of self control. Therefore education must be 
free aud public, and ultimately compulsory, and it matters not 
whether the school maintenance be by public tax, private 
means, or both." ' 

American education has felt the direct influence of three 
European countries, England, France, and Germany. In the 
seventeenth century in the New England colonies, English 
schools and systems were the models. The force of French 
thought aud realism was beginning to be felt in the eighteenth 
century, while the dominating influence that inspired the revival 
of education in the nineteenth century, and did much to shape 
its policv was of a distinctly German character. 

The prevailing thought of Europe in the seventeenth century 
regarding education was the development of a new philosophy on 
a non-scholastic basis, and the organization of a school .system 
that should be realistic rather than humanistic. The first pre- 
pared the way for the second, and the second applied the prin- 
ciples which grew out of the first movement. Descartes in 
France, and Comenius, in Germany, were representatives of each 
of these movements respectively, while John Locke, in England, 
in attempting to harmonize the two tendencies, exerted an indirect 
influence on early education in this country. His theory of 
the development of the human mind, if accepted, would tend to 
change humanistic into realistic methods, but his was a sys- 

(i) First Annual Report \ 1S36, pane 31. 



AMKHK'A'S I'IM'OATIONAr, IN 1 1 B}R ITANCK 

Icmii suited only to royally, and adapted to Hit: education of a 
gentleman; it, therefore, found little favor in America, and 
made no lasting impression upon men who claimed t<> in- free 
and equal. Comenius' system, on the contrary, when under- 
stood, was appreciated and adopted. He was obliged to evolve 
his doctrine and to apply the same in the midst of the Thirty 
Years War. He was forgotten hut afterward discovered and 
appreciated hy the Germans. They incorporated his ideas into 
their state system, and in this way his influence came to America. 
John Amos Comenius was a member of the Moravian Brother- 
hood, a sect following the religious teachings of John IIus. He 
was horn in Moravia, in 1592, and died at Amsterdam in 1671. 
He was educated at Herborn College, and came under the 
influence of Ratke through the teachings of John Alsted. He 
was a teacher, a pastor, and afterward a Bishop in the Moravian 
Church. He suffered exile, afterwards visited England, where 
he mingled with the great scholars of that country, and then 
repaired to Sweden and prepared a series of text- hooks. Tradi- 
tion tells us that he was at one time called to the Presidency of 
Harvard College. Finally, his people having received no con- 
sideration in the Treaty of Westphalia, he, like many others, 
found a refuge in Holland, and here he spent his declining 
years in peace. 

His educational system has a distinct religious basis — educa- 
tion being regarded as a preparation for eternity. He began hy 
attempting to reform the poor methods of leaching Latin, in 
vogue at that time, and hy going to nature for suggestions, he 
dually evolved a plan for a system of universal education. He 
embodied his entire system in the Great Didactic. In the series 
of illustrated text-books which he prepared, he showed how 
the child could be led from the study of meaningless words 
to the study of real things. He graded the schools under bis 
charge and bequeathed to posterity a plan for a system in which 
it was possible for a child to advance step by step, from the most 
elementary school, to the university. 

He wrote and thought in advance of his age. It was more 
than a century afterward before Europe was ready to incorporate 



10 JOHN D. PIERCK 

his ideas iuto an educational system, and still another century 
hefore American educators were ready or willing to adapt and 
apply any of his principles under the new conditions. A com- 
plete English translation of the Great Didactic was not made 
until 1896, although it was originally written in the Czech in 
1631, shortly afterward translated iuto Latin by Comenius him- 
self, and subsequently translated into the German. ' 

The revolutions of the eighteenth century in Church and 
State were necessary before the idea of the development of the 
individual, anticipated by Comenius, could find a reception in the 
minds of the people, or become realized in the institutions of 
church, state, or school. 

The seventeenth century, like those previous, was an age of 
extreme institutionalism, but gradually there had developed a 
growing tendency toward a realization of the worth of the indi- 
vidual as such. This led naturally to the consideration of great 
and complex social questions. France seemed to be the best 
suited for an attempt at a solution of these problems and the 
establishment of certain empirical principles. The conditions 
of its society were best adapted for the propagation of the 
principles of liberty and equality, and the human paradox, Rous- 
seau, was the best exponent of the old tendency in a new form. 

Jean Jacques Rousseau's life (1712-1778) affords an example 
never worthy of imitation, yet at the same time, one the good in- 
fluence of which has been far reaching. His purely subjective 
individualism reflected the social life of his time, aud furnished 
the world a striking illustration of the extreme reaction of an 
individual against authority — the triumph of the supremacy of the 
feelings over reason and blind submission. 

The first half of his life was a passive or dependent one. He 
lived a life of absolute freedom, aud performed only such acts as 
his feelings prompted. He associated with the common people, 
learued to feel as they felt, and with them rebelled against the 
restrictions of a corrupt society, and chafed under the bonds of 
convention and propriety. When he rebelled and lived accord - 

i Mouroe— John Amos Comeuius. 



AMERICA'S KDTICATlONAIy INHERITANCE 11 

ing to Nature, he gave the world a great object lesson in indi- 
vidualism. 

The second half of his life was productive, or creative. He 
associated with people of high estate and came in contact with 
some of the brightest intellects of the French court. He responded 
to the impulse to write, and gave expression to his feelings rather 
than to his reason. Accordingly, in the Social Contract and the 
Kmile, although expressed in paradox, he showed how he would 
reform society by educating a child according to nature, out of 
society, and the application he would make of this principle to the 
state and to the school. 

A comparison of the Social Contract and the Declaration of 
Independence will reveal more than one point in common, while 
a study of the Fniile will show that he anticipated much that is 
accepted today, regarding the individual development of the 
child, according to nature. 

Rousseau laid bare the defects and abuses of the society and 
education of his time, and demanded reforms in the direction of 
truth and simplicity. It has truly been said of him: — "It has 
been given to few men to exert with their thought an influence 
so deep and persuasive as that of Rousseau. This influence, due 
to the fact that he took the 'motives' which were 'toiling in the 
gloom' of the popular mind of his time, and made them flash, 
with the lurid lightning of his own passion, before the eyes of an 
astonished world, extended to all departments of human activity 
— philosophy, science, religion, art, politics, ethics, economics, 
and pedagogy." l 

The central figure of the educational influence of the eighteenth 
century was Henry Pestolozzi, who was born in Zurich, Switzer- 
land, in 1746. With him, as with many another, the right man 
found himself in the proper environment. A force was thus gen- 
erated from which radiated an external influence. For contem- 
poraries he had Kant and Hegel, Goethe and Schiller, Herbart 
and Froebel, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Mann. He was 
among the first to study educational problems on a psychologic 

1 Thomas Davidson— Rousseau and Education According to Nature, p. 234. 



12 JOHN D. PIERCE 

basis, and by so doing he anticipated the science of education, 
which was later perfected by Herbart and his followers. His first 
activity was in his little school for poor children at Neubof. It 
was here, after the failure of this school, that for twenty years "he 
lived like a beggar, that he might teach beggars to live like 
men;" it was here that he wrote Leonard and Gertrude. This 
book made the whole of Europe conscious of the need of a social 
reform, and of the great truth that education is the only means 
for the accomplishment of this end. We next see him as the 
educator of the orphans at Stanz, where he learned the value and 
place of industrial education. After establishing the common 
school at Burgdorf, and exerting an influence upon Felleuberg 
in the founding of his school at Hofwyl, we find him for the last 
twenty years of his life as the educator of humanity at Yverdun. 
It was from this school that influences radiated to every country 
of the civilized world and acted as potent forces in reforming 
educational method, and in influencing teachers everywhere to 
do better things for the children. 

Pestalozzianism offers suggestions along two lines: — practice 
and theory, — practice in the organization and supervision of 
schools, and theory in the methods of teaching and in the train- 
ing of teachers. 

Flchte, in his celebrated Addresses to the German People, in 
calling attention to the work of Pestalozzi, shows that education 
for all of the people is the only means by which a nation may 
become free. Queen Louise reinforced this suggestion, and by 
her influence made this organization possible. From hencefor- 
ward we see a perfected Prussian Educational System, and Com- 
enius is reinforced by Pestalozzi. 

German, French, and English tutors, together with their 
pupils, had been in attendance at the famous school at Yverdun, 
and upon their return to their homes had done something to 
inaugurate educational reforms. Americans began to visit 
Europe for the purpose of study and observation, and we next see 
these various influences spreading across the sea, where they are 
to operate under new and decidedly different conditions. It 



AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 13 

now remains to be seen how the schools of the United States 
were influenced by these European forces. 

The educational system of America rests, fundamentally, upon 
our peculiar form of government. How did the young republic 
in the western hemisphere, in its endeavors to establish a new 
and hitherto untried form of government, transform and adapt 
the ideas of education of the old world to the peculiar conditions 
found in the new? One may well wonder how the national ideal 
was evolved. At first, it was undetermined and was imperfectly 
understood; but with time it grew so strong and became so 
prominent in the consciousness of the people that we can look 
about us today and see its full and perfect realization. 

The line of march was from Europe to the eastern colonies, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vir- 
ginia, and, with increased facilities for transportation, thence 
westward to the Northwest Territory. The people of the new 
state of Michigan, being themselves "Easteners," held 
pretty definite notions as to schools and the value of education. 
Their ideas, it is true, were the European thought modified by 
the conditions of early colonial life and doubtless, until the time 
of Mr. Pierce, they were not directly influenced |by Europe. 
These people had, however, a controlling motive in 
founding a school system by modifying other systems to fit the 
needs and conditions peculiar to this new environment. 

In order to understand how the American people came 
into possession of its educational inheritance, it is neces- 
sary first to know how much direct influence was exerted upon 
the American school, and the sources through which it came; 
and, in the second place, it is equally as necessary to know how 
much, that is regarded as American, is original. We shall then 
be prepared to understand the origins of our system. If the 
nature of the past experience of the pioneer is known and his 
motive can be understood, it will not be a difficult matter to 
explain his acts or trace the steps in the development of local 
institutions. 

It has already been shown that education in the United States 



14 JOHN D. PIERCE 

had felt the stimulating inspiration of three principal European 
educational influences; (1) That in the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth centuries, through the entire colonial period and to the 
War for Independence, England and Holland furnished the ideal 
and suggested the means which dominated the inception of the 
school system; (2) During, and immediately subsequent to, the 
period of the Revolution, French thought and institutions modi- 
fied the then existing schools very materially, exerting some 
influence in the formation of new systems; and (3) in the nine- 
teenth century German schools and teachers became known and 
different plans of organization and improved methods of 
teaching were introduced into this country. In this way, what 
may be called the American Renaissance in Education began. 
The date of this revival may be placed at 1837, the year in which 
Horace Mann became Secretary of the Board of Education in 
Massachusetts, and one year after John D. Pierce had entered 
actively upon the duties of Superintendent of Public Instruction 
in Michigan. 

In the original colonies, the forces that acted in the founding 
of schools were decidedly different as to motive, and exceedingly 
diverse in character. In New York, schools were first established 
by the Dutch and for many years, in fact until the time when 
New Englanders began to move westward, they were conducted 
strictly according to Dutch models. The Swedes founded schools 
in Delaware, the Germans in Pennsylvania and, after the Revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots in South Carolina. 
Even the Moravians founded numerous settlements and estab- 
lished schools according to some of Comenius' ideas. 
Such a settlement was founded near Detroit. All these 
schools, however, had been established in accordance with the 
ideals of these various nationalities, and they exerted little or no 
influence upon communities of English descent. Our schools were 
founded and developed along the lines of English tradition and 
afterward were modified by the other European systems. The Eng- 
lish people continued to migrate to North America and not infre- 
quently sent their sons and daughters to Europe to be educated. 

Without doubt the New England Puritans represented, in a 



AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 15 

large way, the ideas and ideals that prevailed in England in the 
seventeenth century. Tyler says regarding them that "The 
proportion of learned men among their numbers was extraordin- 
ary. It is probable that among them in those early days, between 
1630 and 1690, there were in New England as many graduates of 
Cambridge and Oxford as could be found in any population of 
similar size in the mother country." 1 

These man had been trained in L,atin, Greek, Hebrew, math- 
ematics, rhetoric, and physical, mental, and moral science, having 
been prepared for the university in the English grammar school. 
How natural then that, in the founding of Harvard College, they 
should attempt to reproduce one of the colleges of Cambridge 
University, that Eaton or Winchester should be the model 
for the grammar school, and that the minister, the educated man 
of the community, should act in the capacity of a tutor in prepar- 
ing a boy for college. 

As to elementary schools, it can be said that there was 
no considerable number uutil it was ordered that in every 
township, where the number of householders had increased 
to fifty, there should be appointed some one to teach the children 
to read and write. 2 No such ideal as this was to be found in the 
mother country. This may have been a realization of the con- 
ception of elementary education with which Protestantism had 
made men familiar. Comenius, as the champion and advocate of 
modern elementary education, it will be remembered, was well 
known in England and why not in America? The New England 
Puritans were educated, original, and inventive, and impelled by 
a tremendous life motive, they exercised this genius by put- 
ting into operation common elementary schools. Fundamentally, 
these schools were Michigan's model. In many ways the early 
conditions of Michigan were similar to those of New England, 
and, as a large majority 3 of the early settlers of this state were 

1 History of American Literature. Vol. 1, p. 98. 

- Hinsdale. Documents Illustrative of American Educational History. Report 
of the Commissioner of Education— 1892-1893, p. 1232. 

3 In the Constitutional Convention of 1850, of the 96 delegates, 34 were 
horn in New England, and 43 in New York. 



16 JOHN D. pierce; 

of New England extraction, how natural that they should open 
schools after this eastern pattern. 

The monarchical and aristocratic governments of the old world, 
bound up by the traditions of ages, did not afford a good cul- 
ture ground for the development of a common elementary school. 
The freedom and self reliance that would of necessity 
be developed in the forming of a new civilization in a new 
country were needful for such an institution. The subduing of 
a wilderness and the erection of new homes, the forming of a 
new government, with a firm belief in its perpetuation, all 
demanded the elementary public school. 

America came into immediate contact with French ideas about 
the time of the War of Independence. We had known some 
thing of these through England, but, when the ties with the 
mother country were broken and we turned to France for assist- 
ance, cultured men of science began to visit this country 
in the spirit of scientific observation. Franklin, Adams and 
Jefferson were more than diplomats, they were scholars of the 
highest type and, being held in high esteem at foreign courts, 
were offered every facility for coming into close relation with the 
best in science and literature. 

The founding of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
in 17S0 also marks an important step. The French ideas of phil- 
osophy and science had taken too firm a hold on American life to 
be easily dislodged, and their effects were seen and felt in numer- 
ous ways. Thomas Jefferson was enthusiastic in regard to every- 
thing pertaining to education and, while serving as minister at 
Paris, he was occupied in studying educational systems, organi- 
zation of schools, institutions of higher learning and courses of 
study, and his contributions to the advancement in education 
were of the highest importance. 

The story of French influence on education in Michigan 
affords us an interesting chapter in our history. Hinsdale says, 
"The first attempt to organize education in Michigan savors 
strongly of Freuch influence." In 1S17, the territorial legisla- 
ture passed an act, drawn up by Joseph Woodward, to establish 



AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 17 

the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania. Although writ- 
ten in an extremely pedantic style, this was a plan of remarkable 
comprehension. It was doubtless suggested by the University of 
France, which was founded in 1806. This act was repealed in 
1821 and a new one enacted in its stead. By the provisions of 
this, the institution was named the University of Michigan. 
This peculiar legislation was marked with liberality and good 
judgment. In 1837, when Michigan became a state, the influ- 
ence of Germany began to be felt in America, and we shall see 
that the Michigan system of public instruction was readjusted 
according to Prussian ideas, embracing provisions for primary, 
secondary and higher education, supported and supervised by 
the state. 

It would be a difficult task indeed to give any kind of a just 
estimate of the extent or value of German influence upon Ameri- 
can education, in the organization of school systems, in the 
modification of those already established, and in the reform of 
courses of study and methods of teaching. That this influence 
has shown itself an important factor in our educational history, 
no one, who has given the subject serious attention, will deny. 

Dr. Franklin, who visited Gottingen in 1766, was probably 
the first American to investigate a German university, and 
George Ticknor was doubtless the first American, studying in a 
German university, who has left us an account of his work and 
observations. Many other names might be included in the list 
of those who studied at Gottingen, Halle, or Berlin previous to 
1837, notably those of Everett, Bancroft, Longfellow, Motley, 
and others. This was the beginning of the direct German 
influence. 

In 182:3, Dr. Cogswell and Mr. Bancroft founded the famous 
Round Hill School in Massachusetts, and this was the first 
school in this country to be directly influenced by German ideas. 
This school was opened after Dr. Cogswell returned from Eu- 
rope, where he had visited the schools of Fellenberg at Hofwyl, 
and Pestalozzi at Yverduu. He has left some interesting and 
valuable statements respecting these visits, and seems to have 



18 JOHN D. PIERCE 

been more favorably impressed with the work and results of the 
former than with the latter institution. This may have been 
due to the intensely practical character of this school, and 
to the ideas of family life employed in its management, ideas 
which he afterwards introduced into the Round Hill School. 
He said: "There was the greatest equality and at the same time 
the greatest respect, a respect of the heart, I' mean, and not of 
fear. Instructors and pupils walked arm in arm together, played 
together, ate at the same table, and all without any danger of 
their reciprocal rights. How delightful it must be to govern 
where love is the principle of obedience." 

The Fellenberg School was originally agricultural and indus- 
trial in its charactei and, because it offered the suggestion of a 
self-supporting school through the work of the pupils, it pre- 
sented many ideas for the founding of schools of this character 
in the United States. Regarding Pestalozzi, he said: "I do not 
believe his system, carried to the extent he does, is the true 
method of storing the mind with knowledge. It would exclude 
memory altogether as a medium of instructing and make use of 
reason alone, which is absurd." 

It is evident that he did not fully comprehend Pestalozzi's 
educational aims or methods, and it was necessary that they 
should be better understood before any permanent influence could 
come from this source. It was necessary for organization to pre- 
cede methods of instruction, and, so it was not until 1860, that 
this influence directly effected our schools. Its introduction was 
due to the efforts of Dr. Sheldon of the Oswego Normal School. 

In 1818-1819, Prof. John Griscom, of New York City, visited 
all of the important European countries and, upon his return, 
embodied the results of his observations in a book entitled: "A 
Year in Europe." This report had an indirect influence upon 
the early Michigan System. In 1838, the state of Ohio commis- 
sioned Prof. Stowe to study the foreign school systems. His 
report was full of suggestion, and coming into Mr. Pierce's 
hands proved of no little value to him in his later work. He gave 
this report publicity in his Journal of Education. 



AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE 19 

M. Victor Cousin's Report of Public Instruction in Prussia 
exerted more influence than any other upon the founding of the 
Michigan school system ; in fact it may be said to have been the 
model used. It was the first complete and comprehensive report 
of European schools that had been available to the English reader. 
In 1831, M. Cousin, at the instance of his government, visited 
Prussia and other European countries, and the series of com- 
munications which he made constitute the report. In 1834, it 
was translated into English by Mrs. Sarah Austin and published 
in London. It appeared in New York in 1835 with a preface 
prepared by J. Orville Taylor, and was published by Wiley and 
Long. The book before us bears this imprint, and is the 
identical copy which was owned by John D. Pierce, and which 
was studied by Mr. Crary and himself as they sat upon a log, 
back in the pioneer days, in the city of Marshall, and planned 
our school system. 1 It is very evident that this report influenced 
them to a great extent. This becomes more apparent when one 
takes the trouble to compare its essentials with those of the first 
constitution of Michigan, or with Mr. Pierce's educational 
utterances. 

We have now traced the source of many of the ideas that 
lie at the foundation of our educational systems, both national 
and state. They were all influences that were felt in Michigan, 
either directly or indirectly, and their careful consideration 
dispels the commonly accepted fallacy, that the American 
School System was of a spontaneous growth, indigenous to the 
soil, or that it was evolved or invented by some man or group 
of men, to fit the needs of a people. Education is adaptation, 
and in every instance where a group of people migrate to a 
new land, they take with them their educational ideas and 
ideals. The adaptation of these to time and place produces the 
school as one of the fundamental institutions. In his way a 
new ideal is evolved. 

In 1837, certain important and urgent needs were evident 
i See Chapter VIII. 



20 JOHN D. PIERCK 

in the country and, under the leadership of a lew master minds, 
they were met and satisfied. There was a demand for: — 

1. Something looking toward a better and more perfect organ- 

ization of schools — including better supervision, a more 
complete maintenance, and a more perfect system of grad- 
ing. 

2. The establishment of agricultural, industrial and manual 

training schools. 

3. Better and more liberal courses of study and better methods 

of instruction. 

4. Trained teachers and the consequent demand for normal 

schools. 

5. District and public libraries and better text books. 

The educators of Kurope had perceived these problems, and 
such men as Comenius, Locke, Rousseau, Franke, Fellenberg 
and Pestalozzi had offered a solution. When the same questions 
presented themselves to the pioneers in the new world, the 
experiences of the old educators were adjusted to the new con- 
ditions by the alert and inventive genius of such men as Jeffer- 
son, Franklin, Mann, Barnard, and Pierce, and thus was wrought 
out, in our public school system, our exceedingly complex edu- 
cational ideal. 



CHAPTER II. 

SKETCH OF EARLY MICHIGAN HISTORY 

We people of Michigan pride ourselves on being a sturdy and 
self-reliant folk. We are proudof our state, both ior what she is 
and what she may become ; we live in the present and our gaze is 
fixed on the future, not on the past. Perhaps this explains why 
we have a seeming disregard for our traditions, and consequently 
no real appreciation of our history, or, at any rate, of the 
romance in our history. For it is true, — we have had a romantic 
past, so picturesque, so adventurous, so heroic, that it deserves to 
be remembered by us and kept fresh in the remembrance of our 
children. 

Now and then it is a good thing for us to take stock of our 
inheritance, and try to realize through what stages of progress 
we have risen to power and become great. We are not so very 
far removed from our political beginnings — our fathers can 
remember them, and our grandfathers achieved them — yet we 
can scarcely comprehend the changes that have occurred since 
that time. Nowhere else in this wide world was the ownward 
march of history swifter, or carried more changing conditions in 
its train, than in the Northwest, in the nineteenth century. And 
if we turn our gaze backward a little further into another century ( 
we find ourselves in a period the story of which is as strange 
to our ears as if it were the chronicle of another land. 

The seventeenth century was a brilliant age for Old France, 
but none the less so for New France on this side of the ocean. 
The king and his courtiers at home might gamble, and write 
verses, and frequent the drawing-rooms of beauties and blue- 
stockings, but in America his Majesty's representatives had 
more serious purposes. They gambled only with the hazards of 
death in the wilderness, wrote only to tell the story of their suf- 
ferings, their only salons were the log houses of missions and 

21 



22 JOHN D. TIERCE 

trading posts, and the wigwams of the Indians. Verity, the 
pioneers of France in the New World, — priests and chevaliers, 
were of heroic stamp, and they left their names not only as land- 
marks in the geography of the Northwest, but also to mark eras 
in its history. 

In the year 1632, Pere Sagard, a Jesuit missionary, looked 
out upon the waters of Lake Huron, the first of that splendid 
number of devoted priests who did such valiant service in the 
exploration of the region of the Great Lakes. Nine years later 
Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jogues penetrated as far as the 
present site of Sault Ste. Marie, and were followed in 1660 by 
Menard, who boldly skirted the southern shore of Gitchee Gumee, 
the Great Water, as far west as the northern part of Wisconsin, 
where he died the next year. "I put my trust in that Provi- 
dence," he wrote, "which feeds the little birds of the air and 
decks the wild flowers of the wilderness." 

Menard was followed in 1666 by Claude Allouez, a man 
equally full of religious zeal, but at the same time a keen 
observer and explorer, and the map which he helped make of 
Lake Superior, under the name of Lac Tracy, is a marvel of 
accuracy and skill. A year or two later, at Allouez's request, 
came Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette, and the Ottawa 
Mission became a permanent establishment, with its center on 
the river not far from the outlet of Lake Superior. The station 
was called Sainte Marie du Sault, in honor both of the place 
and of the faith, and was without doubt the first real settlement 
in Michigan. 

The beginnings of work at the Sault had been unostentatious, 
but a touch of pageantry came in the year 1671, when Monsieur 
de Lusson, representative of the Governor-General of New 
France, arrived to take formal possession of the region. The 
Indians had come from far and near, and in the council house 
with the French sat fourteen chiefs who listened in stolid dig- 
nity to the proclamation of the king. On a height over the 
river a cross was raised, and the arms of the great Louis were 
tacked upon it. Then as the priests sang the Exaudiat, the 



SKETCH OF EARXY MICHIGAN HISTORY 23 

shield of France was suspended above it all, and amid the 
solemn silence that fell, Father Allouez, pointing to the cross, 
said: "It is He of whom I have always spoken to you, and His 
name and word I have borne into all these countries. But look 
likewise at that other post to which are affixed the armorial bear- 
ings of the great chieftain of France whom we call king. He 
lives beyond the sea; he is the chief of the greatest chiefs, 
and has not his equal in the world. . . . No one now 
dares to make war upon him, all nations beyond the sea hav- 
ing most submissively sued for peace. From all parts of the 
world people go to listen to his words and to admire him, and he 
alone decides all the affairs of the world." ' Surely the Grand 
Monarque could have wished for nothing more eulogistic than 
this. 

But in the same year that the king's representative at the 
Sault was taking possession of all the lands west of Montreal, 
forces were at work which were to interfere seriously with the 
actual occupation of this part of New France. The Ottawas, and 
theHurons, who lived around the shores of the Great Lakes, were 
beset by two fierce enemies, — the Iroquois on the east, and the 
Sioux from beyond the head waters of the Mississippi. Since 
late in the year 1669, Marquette had been in charge of the mis- 
sion at La Pointe, situated not far from the present city of Ash- 
land. In the spring of 1671, news came to the little station that 
the terrible Sioux were on the war path, and the Indians living 
in the vicinity were panic stricken. They did not think of 
defense — flight was their only safety. Accordingly they collected 
their belongings, burned their fields so that they might not suc- 
cor the marauders, and to the number of several hundred 
embarked in canoes for the Sault. After a short stay here the 
Ottawas proceeded to join their kinsfolk on Manitoulin Island, 
while the Hurons and Father Marquette repaired to the Island of 
Michillimackinac, lying between Lake Huron and Lake Michi- 
gan, where a mission called St. Ignace was already in existence. 
This retreat must have been a sorrowful one to Marquette, for it 

1 Les Relations des Jisuilcs, 1670 1. 



24 joiin X). PIERCE 

meant the total abandonment of a hopeful Geld, which, as 
Thwailes says, for over a hundred years was now to be left to the 
fnr trader and the savage. l 

The coming of Frontenac, the greatest of the Governor- Generals 
of New France, in 1672, marked a new era for the region of the 
Great Lakes. He undertook at once to establish military posts at the 
Sault and at Mackinac, in order to maintain the dominion of the 
crown throughout the country by force, if necessary. He also 
began a war to the death upon the implacable Iroquois, who had 
so long terrorized the eastern borders and rendered impassable 
the waterway of Niagara and Lake Erie, leading to the Far West. 
Moreover, he entered heartily into ambitious schemes of explo- 
ration, and it was with his encouragement that Joliel and Mar- 
quette set out upon a quest for the discovery of the Father of 
Waters. 

The story is an interesting one. On the 17th of May, a 
memorable day in our history, they left the mission station of St. 
Ignace, and just a month later they glided down the smooth 
waters of the Wisconsin and out upon the bosom of the Missis- 
sippi. The object of the journey was now achieved, hut one of 
the discoverers, Marquette, was destined to pay for the experi- 
ence with his life. His privations had brought upon him a 
disease, which though fought off for a time, at last struck him 
down. In the spring of 1675, after two years of arduous missionary 
work among the Indians of the Wisconsin country, he launched 
his cauoe once more upon the waters of Lake Michigan, hoping 
if possible to reach St. Ignace to die. hut his desire was not 
realized, for the summons of death overtook him on our beautiful 
west shore, somewhere near the present site of Ludington. 

With the crushing of the Iroquois in New York, and the 
defeat of the English before Quebec in 1693, the French began to 
plan to utilize the strategic importance of the hake IJrie route to 
the West. In the summer of 1679 h,a Salle had reached Mack- 
inac in the Griffon^ by way of the lower lakes. Hennepin, who 
accompanied him, writes enthusiastically of the region along the 

i Father Marquette. New York. 1903. 



SKJ'.TCH OK KARLY MICHIGAN HISTORY 25 

Detroit River: — "The 11th we went further into the Straight, 
and pass'd hetween two small islands, which make the finest 
prospect in the World. This Streight is finer than that of 
Niagara, being thirty leagues long, and everywhere one League 
broad, except in the middle, which is wider, forming the lake we 
have called St. Clair." ' 

As time went on, the advantage of a post at this point became 
more and more apparent, and in 1701, Cadillac, who for som<- 
years previous had been commandant at Mackinac, brought from 
Montreal a company of soldiers and workmen, and laid the 
beginning of Fort Pontchartrain, later known in our history as 
Detroit. 

The French occupation of the country of the Great Lakes was 
now practically complete, the three posts of Sault Ste. Marie, 
Mackinac, and Detroit, guarding the only routes by which the 
region could be entered. Still this occupation did not mean 
development in any real sense, and the next three-quarters of a 
century in Michigan history beheld no permanent conquest of the 
wilderness. Coureurs de hois and voyageurs penetrated the 
interior in every direction to barter with the Indians, a few more 
soldiers and traders came to Mackinac and the Sault, and up and 
down the river near Detroit, the white log cabins of a few habitant 
fanners began to show against the background of the unbroken 
forests; but this was not settlement that weighed much in the 
destinies of the land. Detroit alone grew, and yet not without 
great difficulty, for the military regime was tyrannical, and the 
inhabitants were burdened with feudal obligations and traditions. 

but there were other forces at work which made the French 
occupation in the West precarious and unsuccessful. The Kng- 
lish were beginning to encroach upon the trade of the country. 
The Indians, too, under the constant scheming and allurements 
of the English, were getting restless and impatient. When the 
final struggle should come for the supreme control of the con- 
tinent, the French were not to be in a position to hope much 

1 The second London edition of Father Hennepin's A New IJiicovety of 
a Vait Continent, 1698. 



26 JOHN D. l'IKRCK 

from their western posts, since with these it was a struggle for their 
own preservation. 

At last there came the trial of strength, a life and deatb 
grapple between two different races and civilizations. First 
Quebec fell, then Montreal, and with it all Canada. It seems 
tbat Vaudreil, the Governor- General, had counted some on a 
stubborn defense beyond the Lakes, but on the 29th of Novem- 
ber, 1760, the lily-emblazoned flag of France was pulled down at 
Detroit, and with the surrender of the place passed away the last 
vestige of the sovereignty of New France. Though it was not till 
1763 that the treaty between France and England was signed, 
which definitely disposed of the French possessions east of the 
Mississippi, Michigan actually came under British rule with the 
taking of Detroit, the only settlement in all the country of the 
Great Lakes at all worth a struggle. 

As we have indicated, it had never been the policy of the 
French crown to develop or colonize the western country. This 
is all the more evident when one remembers that after more than 
a hundred years of contact with the region, there was nothing to 
show for it at its surrender except a few mission stations among 
Indians that were growing worse rather than better, aud some 
scattered military posts, which did not contain more than 3,000 
white inhabitants, all told. 

The farmers along the Detroit River could hardly grow enough 
to feed the garrison, aud transportation was still by means of 
batteaux and canoes, for there was not a sail on the Great Lakes. 
Spiritual needs had been provided for, but not so, intellectual 
needs, and hardly ability enough could be found to draw up and 
attest properly the legal documents of the settlement. And the 
printing press? There was none in Michigan, as Judge Cooley 
says, for the simple reason that there was none in all New 
France. ' 

But half-hearted and listless as had been the efforts of the 
French at colonization, conditions were not materially improved 
during the first years of British control. No attempts were made 

1 Michigan — A History of Governments. Boston, 1S99. 



SKETCH OF KARI,Y MICHIGAN HISTORY 27 

to conciliate the French settlers, or secure new ones, and the 
management of the Indians was characterized by lack of intel- 
ligence, sympathy, and tact, The result came in the sudden out- 
burst of savage fury on the part of Pontiac and his minions, which 
in 1763 swept the whole Northwest, and almost succeeded in 
annihilating the English power. Pontiac had reserved 
Detroit for his own vengeance, since it was within easy reach of 
his village, yet by rare good fortune, of all the fortified outposts 
in Michigan, Detroit was the only one that was able to withstand 
the shock. Treachery, from which the Indians had hoped so 
much, proved here their own undoing. 

Michigan was not an active field of operations in the Revolu- 
tionary War, though the inhabitants of the scattered settlements 
watched the progress of events with eager interest. Nevertheless, 
the authorities at Detroit were constantly at work arousing the 
hostility of the Indians, and even fitted out marauding expedi- 
tions and scalping parties to prey on the remote American settle- 
ments in the Ohio valley. Nor did the capture of Hamilton, 
Lieutenant Governor of Detroit, at Vincennes, by Clark, and his 
subsequent removal to Virginia, in irons, succeed in putting a 
stop to this guerrilla warfare. In 1780, Captain Bird, of notorious 
fame, headed an expedition, made up in part of Detroit militia, 
that ravaged a portion of Kentucky, but though the excitement 
in the eastern colonies was raised to fever heat by the outrages, no 
campaign against Detroit was attempted. 

By the treaty of 1783, which concluded the war, it 
was recognized that Michigan lay within American ter- 
ritory, but the British made no move to evacuate any of the 
forts. The commanders at Detroit and Mackinac were not notified 
by their government that any change of sovereignty had taken 
place, and in spite of protest and remonstrance they continued to 
hold these important places till 1796. 

In the meantime Congress proceeded to make arrangements 
for the government of the newly acquired region, as if there were 
no question as to possession. In 1787 the whole district north of 
the Ohio was organized into a territory, with General St. Clair as 



28 JOHN D. PIERCE 

governor. But administration was not easy. The increasing tide 
of immigration from the eastern states began to make the Indians 
feel uneasy and insecure ; and the British did all in their power 
to turn this feeling into animosity. Open hostility came in the 
year 1790, and the infant territory was exposed once more to all 
the horrors of border and savage warfare. In two preliminary 
campaigns the American forces suffered humiliating defeat, but 
in 1794, General "Mad Anthony" Wayne succeeded after a 
desperate battle in crushing the Indian power completely. When 
finally the British reluctantly handed over Detroit, it was Wayne 
who took command. Michigan was now for the first time really 
a part of the United States. 

The Ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest Terri- 
tory was organized was a great document, and worthy of the 
genius of statesmen. "No charter of government in the history 
of any people has so completely withstood the tests of time and 
experience," is the opinion of Mr. Cooley. 1 And as one reads, 
he can readily see that it was well calculated to infuse new life 
into the Northwest. Feudal traditions, absolutism, disregard of 
human rights and needs, which had characterized the white man's 
rule for a century and a half, were now to give way to enter- 
prise, ideals of progress, and assertion of individual freedom. 
The third article alone fully sustains Dr. Hinsdale's claim 2 that 
the Ordinance should be ranked with the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence as "one of the most memorable documents that passed 
the doors of the old Congress." Let us quote the part which 
refers to education — a prophecy which was later to be realized so 
thoroughly in the work of that great pioneer educator who is the 
subject of this volume: — 

"Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good 
government, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the 
means of education shall forever be encouraged." 

The new order of things was destined to reach Michigan last. 
The century was almost gone before the English withdrew, and 

1 Michigan — A History of Governments. Bostou, 1899. 

2 The Old Northwest. New York. 1888. 



SKETCH OF EARI.Y MICHIGAN HISTORY 29 

Indian troubles, which generally had their origin in British 
machinations, continued for some years to retard settlement. 
Detroit was still the only point of any importance, and it 
had as yet made no real progress. In the year 1805 when 
Michigan was set off from Indiana and made into a territory by 
itself, the total white population of the whole region was not 
reckoned to exceed 4,000 souls. 

The first Governor of Michigan Territory was General William 
Hull, a man who had made an excellent record in the East, but 
was unfitted in every way to cope with the problems in the 
strenuous life of the frontier. And his assistants in the govern- 
ment were refractory and jealous. The Indians under Tecumseh 
were verging toward open hostility, and on the horizon could be 
heard the mutterings of war. The place demanded a man of iron, 
and Hull was a man of straw. 

It was evident from the beginning that the coming struggle, 
unlike the Revolution, would involve the country of the Great 
Lakes, and measures were at once taken by the Government to 
defend Detroit with a large force. This Army of the Northwest, 
as it was called, was put in command of General Hull. After 
various blunders and grandiloquent proclamations, and a feint at 
an invasion of Canada, not quite two months after war was de- 
clared, Detroit was surrendered to the British without firing a 
shot. It was not in the face of overwhelming odds, or after a long 
siege, or because of the temper of the troops. From a military 
point of view the chances of success were good. But here let us 
take the words of the Detroit Gazette 1 of the year 1819: — 

"It is rational to suppose that nothing less than a miracle 
could have saved the British army from capture or destruction. 
At such a moment, when the arm of the patriot was nerved for 
contest, when the enemy which he had eagerly sought was before 
him, under circumstances so favorable, and he exulting in a 
proud triumph for his country, with what agonized sensations 
did he behold a white flag floating over the Star-Spangled 
Banner!" 

1 Reprint byC. M. Burton, Detroit, 1904. 



30 JOHN D. PIERCE 

History has not rehabilitated the character of General Hull. 
Benedict Arnold earned the odium of his countrymen because 
he was a traitor, and General Hull because he was a coward. 

During the next year Michigan paid dearly for the calamities 
at the commencement of the war. The hand of the English 
from Detroit rested heavily on the desolated Territory, and the 
infamous massacre of the Raisin, in January, 1813, was only a 
sequel of the story. But with Perry's victory on Lake Erie, a 
change came. General Harrison and his army could now be con- 
veyed to Canada. On the 5th of October, 1813, was fought the 
Battle of the Thames, which avenged the ignominious surrender 
of Detroit, the woes of the British occupation, and the horrors of 
the River Raisin. Michigan ceased to be a contested ground, 
and was now ready, after long waiting, to enter upon its heritage 
of progress. 




PEIRCE COAT OF ARMS. 



COAT OF ARMS OF THE PIERCE FAMILY 



CHAPTER III. 

CULTURE CONDITIONS IN TERRITORIAL DAYS 

On the 29th of October, 1813, General Lewis Cass was made 
governor of the Territory of Michigan, with his capital at Detroit. 
This appointment was extremely fortunate for the development of 
the vast and unknown region, for the new governor was intel- 
ligently alive to its needs and possibilities. In order that the 
Territory might be opened up to exploration and settlement as 
speedily as possible, he at once began to negotiate treaties with 
various Indian tribes, by which their title to extensive tracts was 
extinguished, and a way thus inaugurated for the operation of 
government land laws. Of course, the first step toward inducing 
settlers to locate in the Territory was to be able to assure them of 
the legality of their holdings. 

As earl}- as 1S12, an act of the general government had set 
aside two million acres in Michigan as bounty lands for soldiers, 
but when at the end of the war, surveyors entered upon the task 
of defining these grants, they reported the country of southern 
Michigan a swampy, pestilential region, with not one acre in a 
hundred fit for human habitation. A second examination seeni- 
iugly confirmed this, and in 1816 the law was amended so that 
the claims of soldiers might be satisfied by lands in Illinois aud 
Missouri. Such reports, no doubt, helped to delay actual set- 
tlement for a few years, nevertheless the surveys went on. In 
1817 the sale of as small parcels as eighty acres was authorized, 
and the next year there were lands in the Territory on the mar- 
ket. In 1820 the minimum price was changed from two dollars 
an acre, as it had been fixed in 1796, to a dollar and twenty-five 
cents, and in 1830 the right of pre-emption was given to actual 
settlers. 

To further facilitate matters of administration and pave the 

31 



32 JOHN D. PIERCE 

way for the beginning of popular government, General Cass com- 
menced at once to lay out counties and road districts. The 
General Government was induced to make an appropriation ior 
the building of a semi- military road around the western end of 
Lake Erie, from Sandusky to Detroit, and within the Territory 
itself a few great highways were constructed. One notably, the 
old "Chicago Pike," from Detroit to Chicago, was destined for 
many years to serve as a channel along which rolled a mighty 
tide of colonization westward. 

Another factor which contributed greatly to encourage settle- 
ment was the revolution wrought by steam in the navigation of 
the lakes. On the 27th of August, ISIS, the fust steamboat 
1 cached Detroit, and it was not many years before there was a 
daily service during the summer months between Buffalo and 
points west. This increase in the facilities of transportation on 
Lake Erie, coupled with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, 
made the journey from New York and New England compara- 
tively easy, and people were attracted more and more by the 
opportunities awaiting them in the wilderness. By the year 
1S30, Michigan could boast a population of 31,639, as compared 
with S, 765 in 1820, and 4,762 in 1810, certainly a substantial and 
significant gain. In the fifteen years that had elapsed since the 
close of the war more had been done to promote the real develop- 
ment of the country of the Great Lakes than in all the two hun- 
dred years preceding. It was evident now that statehood was 
not far off. 

It is not our purpose to discuss at any length the political 
evolution of the commonwealth. But in order to appreciate the 
conditions under which our educational beginnings weie made 
and gradually transformed into a vital part of our theory of state 
government, it may be well worth while to try to convey a notion 
of what pioneer life was, and of the cultural and social 
elements which manifested themselves in our civilization between 
1825 and 1S40, w hen the Territory was waking from its lethargy, 
and taking upon itself the dignity of an integral part of the 
nation. 



CUI/rURK CONDITIONS IN TERRITORIAL DAYS 33 

The pioneer inhabitants of Michigan arc almost entirely of 
native American stock, largely from New York and New Kug- 
land. And this was fortunate. A sturdy vigor was needed to 
conquer the wilderness, and a correct appreciation of the obliga- 
tions of the individual, society, and government, such as pre- 
vailed in our Kasteru states, was necessary to form the founda- 
tion of an enduring civilization in the new land. In the early 
days of the territory the French element naturally predominated. 
The habitants, on their neat little farms along the Detroit River, 
were a thrifty, contented, but unprogressive folk. And the good 
burghers of Detroit, many of whom could boast of aristocratic 
and blue blood, were for the most part satisfied to live in the 
complacent ease of their own traditions. There was nothing in 
the descendants of the old regime calculated to wrest a state 
from the grip of primitive conditions. These people hated 
nothing so much as taxes, to paraphrase Judge Sibley, and 
would rather vegetate undisturbed in their own little communities 
than contribute to the support of a free government. In 1818 the 
possibility of having a legislative assembly for the Territory was 
lost through the hostility of the French vote. 

But the Yankee settlers were different. There was nothing so 
precious to them as law and order, and the blessing of organized 
government. And they brought into the woods of Michigan the 
same ideas and ideals that their fathers had fought to preserve 
in the trying years of the Revolution, and they themselves had 
contested for in 1812. Their new life in the West was an 
arduous one, full of privations and discouragements, and we of 
this generation, who stand on thethreshold of the most remark- 
able century in human history, have no adequate idea of their 
sacrifices. But there they are, — those years — three-quarters of a 
century agone, and in them lie the beginnings of our institutions. 

Detroit, which did not reach a population of 2,500 till after 
1830, was the gateway by which most of the settlers came into the 
Territory. They arrived here by boat after a week's voyage from 
Buffalo, unless the)' were fortunate enough to come by steamboat, 
or after a long and dreary overland journey through Canada. 
From this point they pushed on into the interior, usually along 



34 JOHN D. PIEKCE 

one of the two or three routes: northwest, toward Pontiac and 
Flint, or westward on the old Chicago road, or toward the south- 
west in the direction of Adrian. When the roads failed, they fol- 
lowed trails if they could, or made their own way with a guide. 
As late as 1S36 it took two weeks to go from Detroit to Battle 
Creek, and in the fall of the year a week was necessary to make 
the trip from Plymouth to Detroit and return. 

The conveyance was usually a covered wagon drawn by oxen. 
In it were all the pioneer's worldly possessions, — household 
goods, provisions, farming tools, seed for the first crop. If the 
new-comer was well-to-do he brought with him a cow or two, 
and a few fowls crowded into a box. On the more travelled parts 
of the route he and his family stopped at night at some tavern 
which increasing immigration into the Territory had called into 
existence. Later, when night overtook them, they camped by 
the wayside and cooked their meals in the open air. In this way 
they reached the scene of their new home. But let us quote the 
story 1 of such a journey begun October 1, 1825: 

"The Erie Canal was not yet completed. At Lockport the 
goods of our party were landed and transported seven miles 
around the unfinished part and reshipped. At Buffalo they 
shipped on board the steamboat Fioneer for Detroit, where they 
arrived just one week from the time they started. Detroit at that 
time was a little old French town, containing at most but a few 
hundred inhabitants. Five years later it had by the census but 
2222. 

"Our pioneers left their families in Detroit and proceeded to 
view their lands and provide means to get their families to them. 
But few days were spent in this, and soon all were shipped 
aboard a small boat and were floated and rowed down the Detroit 
River to the mouth of the River Rouge. They were rowed and 
towed up this to the Thomas settlement, about ten miles from 
Detroit. From thence they were transported by a wagon drawn 
by three Indian ponies, owned by Alanson Thomas, to the house 

1 "My Recollections of Pioneers and Pioneer Life in Nankin, Mich,," by 
M. D. Osbaud.— Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vol. 14. 



CULTURE CONDITIONS IN TERRITORIAL DAYS 35 

of Benjamin Williams, on the south side ot the river, near the 
west line of the town of Dearborn, where the two families got 
accommodations till houses could be built on their lands. 

"My father, by the aid of his hired man, was able to get his 
house in a condition that justified moving into it Jan. 5, 1826, but 
it was then without doors or windows. A pack of wolves occupied 
it the night before, and dug in the ashes and gnawed the bones 
left of the workmen's dinner." 

In 1833 a party of 63 persons left New York State for what is 
now Ionia, Mich. This is the narrative: — l 

"This company left German Flats, Herkimer County, New 
York, April 25, on the boat Walk-in- tke- Water, of Utica. This 
boat was propelled, or rather towed, by horses, the company hav- 
ing five. A small stable was in the bow of the boat for their 
accommonation. The cabin was located in the stern with the 
kitchen, the midships being used for dining hall, sleeping place, 
and storage of goods. They reached Buffalo, May 7, where the 
boat was disposed of. A vessel called the Atlantic was chartered 
to take the great bulk of the goods to Grand Haven. At Detroit 
this boat received a supply of flour and pork . . . and then 
proceeded to its destination. There was at that time at Grand 
Haven a small block house. 

"The families, with horses, wagons, and a few of the most 
necessary goods, took passage on the steamer Superior, reaching 
Detroit May 10. On the 12th, having everything in readiness, the 
caravan started, a covered wagon to each family. My impression 
is that there were two horses and four ox teams. When night 
came it was sometimes necessary to pitch a tent, perhaps a tent 
for each family. They reached Pontiac, May 14th, Fuller's in 
Oakland County on the 15th, and Gage's on the 16th. They 
camped in the woods on the 17th, were at Saline on the 18th and 
19th, and camped out from the 26th to the 28th. A part of the 
way it was necessary to cut their own road. During the last 
stage of the journey a child of Samuel Dexter was taken sick and 

1 "The First Settlement of Ionia," by P. H- Taylor, Michigan Pioneer and 
Historical Collections. Vol. 14. 



36 JOHN D. PIERCE 

died while the wagons were moving. The company came to a 
halt near or at Muskrat Creek, where the babe was buried. The 
death and burial of this child was the one marked event of the 
whole journey. 

"On May 27th the company reached Grand River, near 
Lyons; forded the river and travelled across the prairie to Gen- 
eroville, where they again forded and camped for the night. On 
the morning of the 2Sth they started again, following an Indian 
trail on the north side of the river, crossed Prairie Creek very 
near where the dam now is, and came to their final halt before 
noon, having been on the road from Detroit from the 12tli to the 
28th." 

Frequently the settler came to a log house already prepared. 
More often, however, one had to be built after arrival on the site 
of the homestead. In the case of the company whose Odyssey 
we have quoted at such length, bark wigwams which were 
bought from the Indians sheltered the people till they erected 
cabins of their own. 

As a rule, the log house of the early days was an unpretentious 
structure. There are log houses in the state yet, but such 
as still do service for dwellings are regal in their appointments 
compared with the typical cabin of three-quarters of a century 
ago. DeTocqueville, a famous French student of American 
institutions, in 1831 spent what he called "Quinze Jours au Desert 
— Two Weeks in the Wilderness" — in Michigan, and has left us 
a description of the usual settler's home. It was thirty feet 
long, twenty feet wide, and iifteen feet high, with one room and 
one window; a fireplace, over which hung a rifle and a deer skin; 
on the wall a map of the United States; near by on a shelf a few 
miscellaneous books, among which was a much-worn Bible, and 
sometimes a copy of Milton, or Shakespeare; the furniture a 
rickety table, some boxes, and a few rude chairs; in a corner 
leaned some agricultural implements, and a bunch of grain or 
seed corn dangled from the rafters. 

This coincides with another picture left us by a pioneer. 1 

1 "My Recollections of Pioueers aud Pioneer I.ife in Nakin, Michigan.' 
by M D. Osband— Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections., Vol. 14. 



CULTURE CONDITIONS IN TERRITORIAL DAYS 37 

"Judging by my recollections the house was 1Sx24 feet on the 
ground. I have spoken of the walls and roof. The cracks be- 
tween the logs were stopped by triangular pieces of wood fitted 
and fastened in, and they were all plastered, outside and inside, 
with clay mnd. This, if properly done, effectually prevented any 
circulation of air through the walls. The house was built on the 
south bank of the river and fronted south. It had but one out- 
side door— located in the middle of the south side. There was 
one twelve-light window of 7x9 glass in each of the sides. The 
door was a battened one, and it and the windows and their case- 
ments were stained red. The brick fireplace and hearth were in 
the middle of the east end; an iron crane hung to the north 
jamb, suspended from which were several pot hooks, on which 
the kettles were hung when used in cooking. The bricks of the 
fireplace were laid in clay mortar. The ground story contained 
but one room; this room was used for kitchen, dining-room, 
bedroom, and parlor, and sometimes, as was common with us, for 
a shop. In cold weather my father brought his work-bench into 
the house whenever he had sash or doors, coffins, or other small 
articles to make." 

"In the southeast corner stood a ladder leading to the attic. 
The dishes, and other culinary apparatus, together with a chest 
holding provisions, were kept in the northeast corner. The two 
west corners held each a bed, with a trundle bed under one of 
them. A trap door in the floor led to the cellar. The kitchen 
table set against the north wall, and over it hung the looking- 
glass. Between the bed and against the logs at the west side of 
the room stood a cherry bureau, a leather-covered trunk, and a 
candle stand. Standing about the room were a half-dozen 
straight-back, splint-bottom chairs, including a large and a 
small rocker, several three-legged stools, and a cradle. This 
last article was as indispensable among the pioneers as else- 
where, in every thrifty family. This particular one was made by 
my father of white wood boards, and after the most approved 
plan of the times. ... In time of use, the flax and wool 
spinning wheels were also on this floor. At other times they 
were both in the attic." 



38 JOHN D. PIKRCK 

"Suspended from a beam overhead by two hooks hung the 
trusty flintlock rifle. Hanging against the south wall, east of the 
window, were during the cold season, halves and quarters of 
venison. Strips nailed to the undersides of the beams overhead 
were frequently covered by small pieces of lumber used in mak- 
ing sash, axe helves, gun-rods, etc., and were utilized by my 
mother as a convenient place for drying fruit in the season." 

The real trials of pioneer life came in the first years before 
the clearing of the farm had progressed very far. Salt pork and 
flour, relieved somewhat by wild game and fruits, were the staple 
provisions, and when these failed they could be replaced only by 
a long journey to some trading post or store, and at prices that 
were almost prohibitory. If things went well, and ague did not 
incapacitate the newcomer, he might succeed in getting land 
enough cleared by the second year to raise a small crop of wheat, 
corn, and potatoes, but when harvest time came it was a serious 
problem to convert the little grain thus gained into flour, Says 
the Hon. George Willard: — l "To illustrate the inconvenience 
arising from the distance of mills from most of the early 
settlers, and the difficulty of reaching them when there were no 
roads and bridges, a former resident of my own city .... 
who settled on Climax prairie in 1831, relates that he was nine 
days in going and returning from the nearest grist mill, located 
at Flowerfield, in St. Joseph County." 

"Judge Sands McCamly, the pioneer of Battle Creek, was 
obliged to use the grit of pounded corn for his family bread sup- 
pi v, but requiring a change of diet for an invalid son, he made 
three journeys of fifty miles each to John Vicker's mill at Vicks- 
burg . . . before his effort proved successful. As late as 
July, 1836, I recall a somewhat trying experience with the flour 
question. The barrel brought from the East to the log cabin in 
Battle Creek township, was empty. Not a pound of flour or meal 
was to be bought or begged in the neighborhood. The last short- 
cake had been baked and eaten, and the head of the family . . . 

i "The Making of Michigan." — Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collec- 
tions. Vol. 17. 



CUI.TURK CONDITIONS IN TERRITORIAL DAYS 39 

had repaired to the nearest mill, located at Marshall. The place 
was thronged with pioneers on the same errand. No flour was to 
be obtained by purchase except what came from the miller's toll, 
and this was divided among the waiting crowd at intervals with 
rigid impartiality. After waiting until the second day my father 
received his share, for which a liberal price was paid, and returned 
home, a distance of thirteen miles with just thirteen pounds of 
flour. Bread has never in my life tasted quite so well as the few 
loaves sparingly made at intervals from that grist." 

Another early settler of Branch County adds: — "Then, 
1831, we pounded our corn in a hominy block, and when I went 
to mill the round trip made 150 miles, and when I wanted a bar- 
rel of salt I had to go to Detroit, making the round trip 240 
miles." 

Sickness was the pioneer's worst enemy. As long as he kept 
his health he was usually able to keep the wolf from the door, 
but once he or his family was stricken, the prospect was appalling. 
DeTocqueville was impressed by this fact. He reported the fol- 
lowing conversation with the inn keeper at Pontiac: — 

"I said to him: The soil of all forests abandoned to them- 
selves is swampy and unhealthful. Does not the pioneer who 
exposes himself to the miseries of solitude endanger his life?" 

" 'The clearing of the land is a dangerous enterprise,' 
replied the American, 'and it is almost always the case that the 
pioneer and his family fall victims to the fever of the woods. 
Sometimes, when one is travelling in the fall one may come upon 
a cabin where everybody is down with the fever, from the settler 
to his youngest son.' " 

"And what becomes of these unfortunates thus afflicted by 
Providence?" 

"' They resign themselves to their fate and hope for better 
things.' " 

"But do they not hope for any assistance?" 

" 'Almost none.' " 

"Could they not at least have medicines?" 

" 'Sometimes the nearest physician is sixty miles away. They 
have to do as the Indians do — die or get well, as God wills.' " 



40 JOHN D. PIERCE 

At our breakfast table we can read a morning paper filled 
with the happenings of the past twenty- four hours throughout the 
whole world, and the fact occasions no surprise. We get our 
mails regularly and quickly, we can talk with distant friends, if 
necessary, by telephone, or telegraph. But the early settler in 
Michigan, when once he entered the wilderness, was cut off from 
his friends and relatives more completely than would be true, 
now, were he to live in the uttermost parts of the earth. "What 
wonder," as an old pioneer has said, "that the parting scene 
when our company left their old home resembled friends standing 
over the open graves of their loved ones." The nearest postoffice 
was frequently forty or fifty miles away, and money was scarce 
and postage rates were high, — twenty-five cents regular letter 
rate, — and not always paid by the sender. Once when Bellevue 
was the only postoffice in Eaton County, a letter arrived from 
Bennington, Vt., with this address: — 

"For Kalamo, I'm bound, Uncle Sam, 

To Bazateel Taft, in Michigan; 
When you get there you'll see his log fence, 
Then ask him for the twenty-five cents." 
And Mr. Taft paid it. 

The early schools of the Territory were found chiefly in 
Detroit, or among the French farmers up and down the river, 
but they were little more than catechism classes to prepare the 
children for their first communion, and do not deserve to be con- 
sidered in any discussion of an educational system. But with the 
coming in 1798 of the Rev. Gabriel Richard, a cultured and public- 
spirited priest, a new era dawned for education in the settlement. ' 
In 1804 be was instrumental in establishing a classical school in 
charge of his assistant, Father John Dilhet, and about the same 
time founded a ladies' seminar}'. Upon the organization of the 
Territorial government in 1805, some provision was made looking 
to the establishment and support of schools, but there never was 

1 See Life and Times of Rev. Gabriel Richard," by J. A. Girardin— Michi- 
gan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. I. ; also a series of articles on Early 
Education in Detroit, by C. M. Burton, published in The Gateway, 1904. 



CUI,TUKK CONDITIONS IN TMRKITORJAI, DAYS 41 

any well defined system, and it is hard to determine just how 
many schools were actually organized in that period. There 
are many records, however, to show the operation of some in 
which the common branches were taught, and the names of 
several men and women who were teachers of that day have 
come down to us. 

But Father Richard cherished ideas of higher education, also, 
which were far in advance of his day, and as early as 1806 he 
petitioned the Territorial Legislature to create a "college in 
which will be taught the languages ancient and modern, and sev- 
eral sciences, etc." He petitioned the Legislature again in 1808 
concerning a proposed academy for young women, and gave a 
statement of the work he had already accomplished: "Besides 
two English schools in the town of Detroit, there are four primary 
Schools for boys and two for young ladies, either in town or at 
Springwells, at Grand Marais, or at the River Huron." He also 
requested that the Territorial government assist him in the 
building of this school by setting aside for the purpose one of 
the four lotteries of $4000 each, authorized in 1805. But it was 
not done. 

The War of 1812 interrupted all public affairs in Detroit, and 
the schools suffered along with other interests, but when peace 
was declared there was a noticeable awakening in educational 
matters. Some of the schools of this later period, such as the 
Goff, the Dan forth, the Brookfield, though providing instruction 
in hardly more than the common branches, were well and favor- 
ably kiinvn. One, the Laueasterian School, started in 1818 
under the scholarly Lemuel Shattuck, enjoyed unusual popularity 
and came to be, perhaps, the most celebrated school in the Ter- 
ritory. 

But the organization in 1817of the "Catholepistemiad, or Uni- 
versity of Michigania," was the crowning product of Detroit 
influences in our territorial education. And here again the pro- 
gresive views of Father Richard are visible, though he was 
ably seconded by the Rev. Mr. Monteith, a Presbyterian clergy- 
man, and Judge Woodward, Chief Justice of the Territory. But 
it took years for the university to develop into anything as pre- 



42 JOHN D. PIKRCK 

tentious as its marvellous name, and not until Michigan became 
a state, with the interests of popular education in charge of John 
D. Pierce, were steps taken which ultimately resulted in making 
of the university a school of learning, the crowning glory of our 
educational system. 

Let us now for a moment turn our attention to the common 
schools of the Territory as they came into existence at the close 
of the War of 1812, over the vast extent of wilderness, to keep 
pace with the rapid progress of settlement. 

The early settlers from New York and New England took 
kindly to all efforts which tended to maintain the district school. 
It was an institution that they were familiar with, — in it the most 
of them had received their modicum of learning. But the coun- 
try was sparsely settled, and a poverty which we cannot imagine 
prevailed. As Mr. Van Buren says: ' "There was no want of a 
disposition to establish schools, but a want of means, and a want 
of a sufficient number of children in a settlement to constitute a 
school. But the settlers did all they could." 

It was generally the case that wherever a few families were in 
close enough contact, it was not long before somewhere nearby, 
at the intersection of the roads, or trails, a log schoolhouse was 
erected. It was always a rude and unattractive structure, but 
every bit as good as the homes from which the children came. 
Here is a picture of one,' 2 as an old settler has drawn it: — 

"The house was usually covered with shakes. The door was 
made of rough boards, hung with wooden hinges, and fastened 
with a latch of the same material. The windows were made of 
twelve-lighted, seven-by-nine glass, the sash placed horizontally 
instead of perpendicularly. The floor was made of rough boards 
where they could be obtained, but frequently logs split in two 
and hewn smooth were made to answer this purpose. For seats, 
slabs with legs to them were universally used, which answered 
the double purpose of seats and sleds to ride down hill on. The 

' "The I,og Schoolhouse Era in Michigan"; Michigan Pioneer and His- 
torical Collection. Vol. 14. 

'- "Schools of Wayne County at an Early Day," by J. S. Tibbits. Michigan 
Pioneer and historical Collections. Vol. I. 



CUI/TURK CONDITIONS IN TKRRITORIAI, DAYS 43 

desks were constructed by placing boards upon pins driven into 
the walls of the house. No stoves were used in those days, but 
instead an ample fireplace was constructed by sawing out a few 
logs at one end of the house, and filling up the hole thus made 
with stone and mud, which formed the back of the fireplace. 
Sometimes the luxury of a brick hearth was indulged in, but 
usually this consisted of dried clay and sand. The chimney, of 
course, was built of sticks, plastered on the inside with mud." 

The curriculum of that day was limited— it usually meant 
nothing more than training in the three R.'s, and spelling and 
grammar. There was a dearth of text-books, and those used 
were frequently heirlooms of an earlier generation, and as varied 
as the pupils who made up the schools. Nevertheless, a few 
books may be regarded as the standards of that period, some of 
which enjoyed a deserved popularity. The older readers of these 
pages will recognize them: Webster's Speller, Murray's English 
Reader, Daboll's Arithmetic, and Greenleaf's, or Murray's 
Grammar. 

Teachers' wages were low, — for men, who as a rule taught in 
the winter schools, twelve or fourteen dollars for a month of 
twenty-four days, and board — that is, "boarding around"; 
women who taught in the summer received less — six or seven 
dollars and board. 

Not much is to be said for those early backwoods schools 
from the standpoint of appliance and pedagogy, jet crude 
as they were, they did their work well, and afforded a training in 
mind, manners and morals, which was a sure foundation for the 
coming state. 

There is one other factor in the civilization of the territorial 
days which must not be overlooked, — the pioneer preacher. The 
first settlers were a god-fearing folk who brought with them to 
the new land the regard for religion and the church which was so 
noticeable in New England in that day. And along with them 
came the frontier preacher to share their hardships and joys. 
Though often their superior in education and culture, he was no 
less self-sacrificing than they, expected no better lot, and 
worked for the same rewards. The story of some of the early 



44 JOHN D. PIERCE 

circuit riders and missionaries is an inspiring part of our history, 
and we may perhaps dwell upon it a little because it may help 
us later to estimate correctly the career of John D. Pierce. 

The French of Detroit and the southeastern section of the Ter- 
ritory were faithfully ministered to by their priests, some of 
whom, like Father Gabriel Richard, were prominent men. But 
Catholic influence did not affect the Protestant immigrants from 
the Fast, and as the Territory was settled, the religious educa- 
tion of the people was left almost wholly in the hands of the 
pioneer preachers. The Methodists were usually first on the 
ground, zealous in revivals and camp meetings which almost 
always resulted in the starting of little church societies. De Tocque- 
ville said in speaking of religious conditions in 1S31: — 

"Almost every summer some Methodist preachers come to 
visit the new settlements. The rumor of their arrival spreads 
from cabin to cabin with incredible rapidity; it is the great news 
of the day. At the time appointed, the settler, with his wife and 
children, set out along the paths hardly yet distinguishable from 
the forest, to the meeting place. It is not in a church that the 
faithful assemble, but in the open air under the forest trees. A 
pulpit of rough blocks, big trees levelled for seats, . . such 
the ornaments of this rustic temple. The pioneers and their 
families camp in the surrounding woods. Here for three days 
and nights the company engages in religious worship, rarely 
interrupted. It is a sight to see with what ardor these people 
devote themselves to prayer, with what devotion they listen to 
the solemn voice of the preacher. In the wilderness one fam- 
ishes for religion." 

And not only the Methodists, but also the Baptists, Presbyterians, 
Fpiseopalians, and other sects kept pace with the conquest of the 
wilds, all harmoniously working together to inculcate those 
principles of religion and morality upon which all good govern- 
ment rests. The Rev. R. C. Crawford, in some of his remin- 
iscences ' of pioneer ministers tells how the Rev. Richard Cadle 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church used to come out into Oak- 

1 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vol. 17. 



CUI/TURK CONDITIONS IN TKRRlTORIAI, DAYS 45 

land county to hold service in his grandfather's log house. It was 
a matter of wonderment to the boy that a man so neatly dressed 
and so handsome in features, would leave his home in town, ride 
sixteen miles over rough roads, "and spend an hour in a log cabin 
with a dining table for a pulpit, in preaching to a handful of 
adults and children, and not even hint that a collection to defray 
travelling expenses would be acceptable." And when the circuit 
rider came, he too preached at the grandfather's log house, using 
the same table for his pulpit. 

In 1831, the Rev. O. C. Thompson, direct from Princeton 
Theological Stminary, came to the Territory on an evangelistic 
tour. He visited all the inhabited portion of the country 
near Detroit, calling at almost every house, and he pays a fine 
tribute to the hospitality of the pioneer families. As there were 
already a few settlements in the western part of the Territory, he 
set out in that direction, and late in the autumn found himself at 
Jackson. Unable to make his horse ford the streams of his route, 
he had to continue his way on foot — the beginning of a 200 mile 
journey. But let us emote: — l 

"West of Jackson it was next to impossible to distinguish the 
main roads from the Indian trails and the paths of the new 
settlers. I became lost in the openings, and was obliged to make 
my dinner that day on raw turnips which I found growing on a 
deserted homestead. Late in the afternoon of the second day's 
tramp I entered a ten-mile stretch of woods, beyond which I was 
told I would find accommodations for travellers. The sky was 
overcast with clouds, and the rain began to fall before I had 
accomplished half my task. The night set in fearfully dark and 
gloomy, and the stillness was broken only by the howling of 
wolves. I began to feel that my situation was anything but 
pleasant, and might be sadly disastrous, sol quickened my steps. 
Just then the noise of wagons and teamsters on the road before 
me was a glad and welcome sound. As I came up with the 
teams I found there were several families of immigrants benighted 
like niyseif, and all bound for the same house of entertainment 

1 Observations and Experiences in Michigan Porty Years Ago." — Michi- 
gan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vol. 1. 



46 John i). PIERCE 

beyond the woods. Among these immigrants was the Rev. J. I). 

Pierce and family; his wife whom he had mariird recently, 8 
highly intelligent lady from a wealthy family ill the Stale ol New 

Yoik, was sitting iii her silks in an open wagon, drenched to the 

skin with pom in^ rain." 

Such weie some ol the main e\ perieuees of the pioneer 

preachers oi Michigan. John D. Pierce, likeothers, entered upon 

the new and ti \ ing life ol the wilderness with faith and fortitude, 
and he was destined to play a great pari in the Inline development 
ol the new region. II he did more than others, it was not 

because he was more zealous and ambitious, but rather because 
the Providence of God marked him for ^reat things, and he had 
ability t<> do that whereunto he was chosen. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TWO DIRECT SOURCES OB THR MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Michigan's school system, under the state government, has 
been a gradual evolution, n cannot be said to have been the 
creation of one man, or of any one group of men, in one time or 
place. There were leaden in thought who comprehended the 
complex conditions and surmounted the difficulties which con- 
fronted them, but in doing this they were more or less con 
sciously influenced by the work thai bad been done by others, 

both at home and abroad. 

We now purpose (1) to examine briefly into the 
development of the school system, through the territorial 

period up to and including the provisions for education 
to be found in the first state constitution, (Some reference 

lias already been mad'- in Chapter III. to the educational COndi 

tions) ; and (2) to submit a brief analysis of Cousin's Report of 
Public Instruction in Prussia. The first study will dr. 'lose the 
educational foundation upon which Mr. Pierce erected our school 

system ; the second will B( I . to I UOW the ' OUN e of many of his 

educational doctrines and principles, and doubtless will i real 
some of tin- educational agencies which enabled him to accom 

plisb such wonderful results. 
The Ten ilorial Siliool System. 

There seem to have been four logical steps marking the 
development of territorial education: (l) the foundation of the 
system, (2) the Catholepistemiad, (3) the establishment of the 
university, and (4) the founding of the district system. I.ct us 
uow examine the legal provisions connected with each of these 
stages. 

The fi-st law relating to schools in the Territory was, without 
doubt, enacted in tin- year 1809. Regarding this, Justice Cooli 

47 



'IS John n. rnou-i 

Bays: 1 "The act provided lor tin- laying off into school districts 
ot all the settled portions ol the Territory, and for an enumera- 
tion oi the children, between the ages ol four and eighteen, in 
each ol the districts. From Huso districts annual reports were 
required ol the moneys expended in the support oi schools and 
in the construction of school buildings. The Territorial gov- 
ernment w.is to levy an annual t.i\ of not less than two, or more 
than four dollars foi each child reported within the ages men- 
tioned. The sum collected was to be apportioned among the 
districts; not, however, in proportion to the number of children 
in them respectively, but in proportion t«> the sums expended in 
tin year preceding, foi school purposes." 

No further school legislation was enacted until 1817, when the 
Territorial government incorporated an institution, which was 
known as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania. 
it lias already been shown how this originated. 1 The act was 
couched in language crude and pedantic, but, as has been said, 
"the authoi had grasped certain principles which won- of the 
vcrv highest importance, and which, from this time, became 
incorporated in the polity of the Territory and subsequently of 
the State also." 

The main provisions found in the act are as follows: — 8 

1. The establishment of auniversitj with thirteen professors, 
to be appointed by the governor and to be paid an annual salary 
from the treasury oi Michigan, tt was provided that more than 
one professorship might be conferred upon the same person, 

J. The professor ol universal science was the president, and 
he, together with the othei professors, had the power to regulate 
all the concerns of the institution, to enact laws for that purpose, 

to provide for and appoint all officers 01 teachers under them, 

to establish colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums and 
laboratories and to provide for and appoint all school officers 
throughout the various counties, cities, towns, townships, or 

1 Justice Cooley v i , • ■ •■/.•«/, 

■' See page II 

Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898, Vol i. p 601, 



SOURCES 01' Tine MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 4') 

other geographical divisions of Michigan. All teachers were to 

)>c paid a fixed salary from the treasury of Michigan. 

3. The public taxes were increased fifteen per cent and from 
the proceeds of the public taxes, fifteen per cent was appropriated 
for the benefit of the university. Further, it was authorized to 
prepare and draw four successive lotteries, deducting from the 
prizes the sum of fifteen per cent for the benefit of the institu- 
tion. The proceeds of the preceding sources of revenue, and "I 
all subsequent sources, were to be applied to the procuring of 
buildings and the establishment of libraries. 

We have little evidence that the provisions of the act of 1X17 
were extensively carried out, bid, in 1821, some important 
changes were made, which subsequently developed into the fab- 
ric of our school system. A board of twenty-one trustee:., of 
which the governor was a member rx-offido, was ^'ven the con- 
trol of the university, thus transferring the management from 

the professors to an independent centralized body. This board 
of trustees was ^ivcm the power to organize such schools, col- 
leges and academies as they deemed proper. An important step 
was also taken in regard to school maintenance; the trustees 
were left to depend entirely upon the income of the lands espec- 
ially devoted to educational purposes and upon voluntary con- 
tributions from private individuals, instead as formerly, upon an 
income from a general las Upon the property of the territory. 

This extreme centralization paved the way for the next step, 
which resulted in the inauguration of the district system. Prev- 
ious to the year 1827, the people had had no voice in the man- 
agement of (he schools, but everything had been in the hands of 
a central power. In this year, however, a law was passed which 
took the control of the common schools out of the hands of the 
university trustees and conferred certain well defined rights and 
powers upon the people and imposed upon them grave responsi- 
bilities. By the provisions of this act, every township containing 
lifty families was required to support a school. Townships having 
a greater population were required to maintain the school for a 
greater length of time and to make it of a more advanced char- 
acter. This law is, in many respects, the duplicate of the ordin- 



50 JOHN D. PIERCE 

ance of 1647, enacted in Massachusetts. The voters of a town- 
ship could order a division of the township into districts with a 
hoard of three trustees to manage the local affairs. The exam- 
ination of teachers and the supervision of schools were placed in 
the hands of a board of school inspectors in each township. 

In 1828, the law was further amended by providing for the 
appointment, by the governor, of a superintendent of common 
schools for the territory. He was required to report annually on 
the condition of school lands and the amount of money received 
from the rent of them. By this law, the district system was 
defined. It provided for a board of "Commissioners of Common 
Schools" in each township, whose function was to attend to the 
distribution of all money derived from the rental of the school 
section, and to arrange the boundaries of the districts. There 
was also a board of five, designated as "Inspectors of Common 
vSchools," which examined and licensed teachers and performed 
the functions of supervison. 

Dr. Daniel Putnam summarizes the educational conditions at 
the close of the Territorial period as follows: — ' 

1. "Provision for higher education by a university existing in 
the state, and in anticipation of a prospective endowment from 
seventy-two sections of land donated by Congress and three sec- 
tions given by certain Indian tribes. 

2. Provisions for secondary education by means of schools to 
be established and supported by the trustees of the University. 

3. Provision for elementary schools, to be held at least three 
months of the year, controlled and supported by the various 
school districts, with the aid derived from the rents of the school 
system. 

4. Provision for a Territorial Superintendent of Common 
Schools, appointed by the governor with the consent of the leg- 
islative council." 

During the Territorial period, centralization had gradually 
given away to extreme individualism. This condition made a 
central organizing agency necessary and this could be possible 

' Primary and Secondary Public Education in Michigan, p. 17. 



SOURCKS OF THK MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTKM 51 

only under a state constitution, because, under the Ordinance of 
1787, in accordance with which Michigan was governed, the gov- 
ernor and judges did not have the power to enact original laws, 
but only power to adopt and publish such laws of the original 
States as might be necessary and suited to the circumstances; 1 
consequently the educational provisions of the constitution of 
1835, while recognizing the rights and duties of the people, 
assumed the responsibility and undertook the organization and 
control of the school system, by conferring upon the Legislature 
power to enact and execute such laws as may be necessary. 

The following article was adopted: 

"1. The Governor shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Legislature, in joint vote, shall appoint a 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall hold his office 
for two years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by law. 

2. The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, 
the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural im- 
provement. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or, here- 
after, may be granted by the United States to this State for the 
support of schools, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, 
shall be and remain a perpetual fund; the interest of which, 
together with the rents of all such unsold lands, shall be inviola- 
bly appropriated to the support of schools throughout the State. 

3. The Legislature shall provide for a system of common 
schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each 
school district at least three months in every year, and any 
school district neglecting to keep up and support a school, may 
be deprived of its equal proportion of the interest of the public 
fund. 

4. As soon as the circumstances of the state will permit, the 
Legislature shall provide for the establishment of libraries; one 
at least in each township, and the money which shall be paid by 
persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and 
the clear proceeds of all fines assessed in the several counties for 

1 Dr. Hinsdale: Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898. 
Vol. 1. p. 601. 



52 .John i>. rn.KCic 

any breach <>f the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied for the 
9uppoi t ol said libi aries. 

5. The Legislature shall take measures for the protection, 
improvement, or other disposition <>f such lands as have heen or 
may hereaftei be granted by the United States to this State- for 
the support of a university; and the funds accruing from the 
rents or sale of such lands, or from any other source for the pUl 
posa aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund for the 

su|i|)oit <>f said University, with such branches as the public 
convenience may hereafter demand for the promotion of litera- 
ture, the aits and sciences and as may be authorized by the 

terms of such grant ; and it shall he the duty of the Legislature, 
as soon as may he, to provide effectual means for the improve- 
ment and permanent security ol the funds of said University." 
Cousin's Report of t lie Prussian Schools. 

lua previous chapter reference has heen made to this report, and 
it has heen shown how it hecanie a part of America's educational 
inheritance, and how it came into the hands of Mr. Pierce. ' As 
it doubtless influenced him in transforming the old territorial 
plan into the new system, we now wish to examine it more in 
detail in order to hrin^ its main principles clearly before the 
reader. 

Mr. Taylor's preface to the report is exceedingly suggestive 

and interesting, in so far as it directs the attention of the reader 

to educational tendencies and dangers in America, and hints at a 
remedy, lie emphasizes the necessity of the different stati 
ing the school fund at a sum sufficient for the entire support of 
the schools; speaks of the necesssity for trained teachers, and 
urges the desirability of a separate oflicer of public instruction, 
lie shows the value of public libraries and su^c,csts the publica- 
tion, by the government, of an educational magazine so be sent 
to all of the schools. In conclusion, he shows that the district 
school is the source of national intelligence and that universal 
education is the only true security of life and properly. 

The Report proper naturally divides itself into four parts as 
follows: — 

1 .See paste 19. 



SOURCES OF THE MICHIGAN school system 53 

1, General organization of public instruction ill Prussia. 

2. Primary instruction. 
.3. Secondary instruction. 

4. Higher instruction or Universities. 

The American edition of the Report, being the one that came 
into the hands of Mr. fierce, deals witli tlie first two parts only. 
In the analysis of these two, marked emphasis is placed 
upon those facts and principles that appear to have exerted an 
influence upon the founder of the Michigan system. 

Let it be remembered that the Prussian system is a highly 
Centralized one and, therefore, the one officer of tin- greatest 
rank and endowed with almost unlimited power is the Ministi i 
of Public Instruction. This office embraces everything relating 
to science and in consequence all schools and libraries and all 
kindred institutions, such as botanical gardens, niM,eumS| cabi- 
the lower schools of surgery and medicine, and academies 
of music, all come, cither directly or indirectly, under his BUpei - 
vision. The superintendence of ecclesiastical affairs is likewise 
united to that of public instruction. 

The minister has around him a council, which is divided into 
three sections, which correspond to the three branches of his 
office, viz: — a section for churcn affairs, composed ol a certain 
number of councilors, mostly clergymen, with a director at their 
head; a section for public instruction, also composed of a certain 
number of councilors, almost all laymen, with a director; and a 
section for medicine, with its councilors and director. From 
time to time, the minister meets with these councils and directs 
their work and it is through this central administration that all 
the parts of public instruction are directed throughout the whole 
extent of the monarchy. 

Prussia is divided into ten provinces. Each of these provinces 
is divided into departments which comprise an area of greatei 
or less extent. Each department is again sub-divided into what 
are called circles, and each circle is divided into parishes. 

Almost every province has its university, with its own man - 
aging board and authorities elected by itself. It is under the 
superintendence of a Poyal Consistory, nominated by the min- 



54 JOHN D. PIKRCE 

ister of instruction aud in direct communication with, and 
responsible to him. He is the only mediator between the uni- 
versity and the minister. 

In every province, under the direction of the supreme presi- 
dent, is an institution which is both connected with, and depend- 
ent upon the Ministry of Public Instruction, and, in a way, in its 
internal organization, is a copy of the councils mentioned above. 
They are called Provincial Consistories aud, as the Ministry is 
divided into three sections, corresponding to the three lines of 
administration, so we see here a similar sub-division into (1) a 
section for ecclesiastical affairs, called the Consistory, (2) for 
public instruction, called the School Board, and {?) for affairs 
connected with public health, called the Medical Board. The 
functions of the school board are of interest to us because its 
domain is secondary instruction ; it has to deal with the gym- 
nasia and those higher common schools and progymnasia which 
form an intermediate link between primary and secondary educa- 
tion. All seminaries, devoted to the training of teachers, come 
under its jurisdiction, and it has a will in all the more important 
questions relating to primary instruction. Attached to the School 
Board is a Commission of Examination, composed of the pro- 
fessors of the university. Its function is two-fold: to examine 
pupils of the gymnasia who wish to enter the university, and to 
examine those who apply for situations as teachers in the 
gymnasia. 

By the law of the land, every parish must have a school, and, 
by virtue of his office, the pastor is its inspector. Associated 
with him is a committee of administration and superintendence, 
composed of some of the most important persons in the parish. 
In the chief town of the circle, there is to be found, also, 
another inspector, whose authority extends to all of the schools 
of the circle. He, also, is a clergyman. 

In Prussia, all public servants are paid for their services and 
as no post whatever can be obtained without passing through 
the most rigorous examination, they are all able and enlightened 
men. And, as the)' are taken from every class of society, they 



SOURCES OF THE MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 55 

bring to the exercise of their duties the general spirit of the 
nation. 

Primary instruction is parochial and departmental; at the 
same time, it is subject to the authority and direction of the min- 
ister of instruction and is responsible to him. This double char- 
acter is consequent upon the very nature of those institutions 
which require both the superintendence of local powers and the 
guidance of a superior hand, harmonizing the whole. This 
double character is represented by the school councilor, who has 
a seat in the council of the department and is responsible both to 
the ministry of the interior and to that of public instruction. 

All secondary instruction is under the direct care of the school 
board, the members of which are nominated by the minister of 
public instruction. All higher instruction has for its organ and 
its head the royal commissary, who acts under the immediate 
authority of the minister. Nothing, therefore, escapes the eye 
and power of this officer and yet each of these departments of 
public instruction enjoys a sufficient liberty of action. The 
universities belong to the state alone, secondary instruction to 
the provinces, and primary instruction to the ministerial depart- 
ment and to the parishes. The aim of the entire organization of 
the school system is to leave the details to local powers and to 
reserve to the minister of public instruction and his council the 
direction and general impulse given to the whole. 

Under the organization of primary instruction, the report 
deals quite in detail with many topics of a practical character. 
It discusses the duty of parents to send their children to the 
primary schools and the duty of each parish to maintain such 
a school at its own cost. Much attention is devoted to the 
question of the training of teachers, mode of appointment, pro- 
motions, grading, etc. Finally, accompanying the report, were 
plans of school- houses, outlines of courses of study, and pro- 
grams of work, all of which would be very suggestive to one 
about to undertake the organization of a new system. Special 
reference will be made to these as necessity requires in making a 
comparison of the systems. 



PART II. JOHN D. PIERCE 

THE FOUNDER OF THE MICHIGAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 

CHAPTER V. 
KVkl.Y YEARS IN NEW ENGLAND 

The Pierce family is an old one in New England, John Pierce, 
the fust cf the line in America, having settled at Watertown, 
Mass., in the year 1637. The conditions of life in the pioneer 

days of the colonics, though hard and primitive, only served to 
hring out the more native vigor of this race, and as one examines 
the records of the family he is impressed with the fact that its 
men and women have been unusually sturdy in mind and body. 
The most of them have lived quiet lives, content only if they 
were worthy citizens and industrious and upright parents. Rut 
some like Gen. Benjamin Tierce, one time governor of New 
Hampshire, his son Franklin l!. Pierce, president of the United 
.States, and his cousin, the subject of this volume, have had dis- 
tinguished careers, and played creditable parts in the history of 
their country. 

John Davis Tierce, the only son of Gad Tierce and Sarah 
Davis Tierce, was born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, Feb, 18, 
1797. When we recall that Washington was still president at 
that time we realize a little better, perhaps, how far back in our 
history the life of this man takes us, and how young we are as a 
people among the nations of the earth. 

The father, Gad Pierce, was a typical Yankee, tall, of power- 
ful physique, and intelligent, but somewhat restless. Only a short 
time before the boy was born the father had moved from Paxton 
in Worcester county, Mass., to New Hampshire, drawn thither 
by the presence of relatives and some evanescent hope of improv- 
ing his worldly condition. But in this he was disappointed, for he 
was seized with inflammatory rheumatism soon after his arrival 

.S6 



KARI.Y VICARS IN NKW KNGI.AND 57 

in his new home, suffered from it for two years, and died, leav- 
ing his wife and two children, John, a haby two years old, and 
Sally four, in financial straits. This calamity resulted in the 
breaking up of the home, for the widow saw no way of support- 
ing herself and the children together. Accordingly, she resolved 
to carry the boy back to his kinsfolk in Massachusetts. She 
made the journey on horseback, carrying her baby before 
her, and in Paxton handed him over to his grandfather, David 
Pierce, It is a pathetic picture, the lad at such a tender age, 
carried away from home and across the New England 
hills. Not long after the mother's return to New Hampshire 
she married a Mr. Poster who already had a large family of chil- 
dren, so there never was any place for the step-son, and he was 
thus left to grow up without a mother's care. 

The grandfather, David Pierce, was a Tory, who because of his 
fondness for the English church remained loyal to the king. 
Prom what we know of him he must have resembled a country 
squire; he wore knee-breeches and buckled shoes, and insisted on 
his grandson's doing the same. But though the boy wore Eng- 
lish clothes the heart underneath was Yankee through and 
through. About 1807 the old man died, bequeathing to his 
grandson one hundred dollars which he was to receive at his 
majority. 

The lad. ten vears old and homeless a second time, now passed 
into the family of an uncle where he was not especially welcome. 
His grandfather, though old and out of sympathy with childhood, 
had been kind and had cherished a real affection for him. But 
all at once this was changed. There were already several chil- 
dren in his uncle's family, his aunt regarded him as an intruder 
and a burden, — and from now on love and sympathy were to be 
absent from his childhood. 

For the next few years his lot was a bitter one. Though but 
a mere boy, he was obliged to work like a farm hand the whole 
year through for his food and clothing. He slept in an attic 
room under the roof, and the snow of the dreary winters often 
drifted to the very window. Then there were the long hours 
when he helped to 6hovel out roads, and clear paths, 



58 JOHN D. PIKRCK 

or toiled in the wood-lot, chopping the year's supply of fire- 
wood for the big fire place. There was actual physical suffering 
for him in those days. The lunches he took into the woods were 
insufficient to satisfy the hunger of his rapidly growing body ; 
and he often returned at night with frosted hands and feet. In 
the summer time he worked in the fields, trying with the other 
members of the family to wrest a living from the rock-ribbed 
hills of Worcester count}'. Such was the round of toil through the 
year, a cheerless, disheartening one for a boy who already had 
a taste for books and reading, and was beginning to dream dreams 
of the great world without. 

In these years he received a little schooling— not much— and 
this was his only pleasure. During the winter months he was 
allowed to attend school two months each year, just enough to 
give him some knowledge of the common branches. Later the 
village library was accessible to him, and he luxuriated in the 
delight of losing himself in its books. He borrowed books, too, 
from any one who would lend, and tramped miles to get them. As 
a man, John Pierce often remarked that he had read every book 
within ten miles of Paxton. 

But no one must think that the boy was unlike other boys, 
fond only of dreaming and reading, and eschewing the sports of 
boyhood. With all his fondness for books he was a real boy, — 
stalwart and athletic, noted for that physical endurance which 
seven generations of New Rngland forebears had bred into the 
Pierce family. And so we find him taking part in all the out- 
door sports that he could manage to get leisure for, and 
he was regarded by his fellows as a leader and champion. He 
was an all-around, well developed boy, such as would have 
delighted a Greek of Pythagoras' days, for a perfect harmony 
had been established between his bodily, intellectual and moral 
powers. His muscles were hard from rough toil, but his mind 
was keen and receptive, he was gentle and genteel, and his heart 
was pure. His bringiug-up had resulted in giving him confidence 
in his own powers and in making him rely upon himself. From 
the tenacity with which he held to his high purposes he was 
called by his acquaintances "Stubborn John." 



ICARI.Y YKARS IN NKW KNGI.AND 59 

The religious strain in young John Pierce's nature did not lie 
very far below the surface. Coupled with his thoughtful, studi- 
ous bent of mind was a deep seriousness which early made him 
susceptible to religious impressions, and at the age of eighteen 
or so he passed through that soul experience which is termed 
"conversion" — an experience, by the way, which one comes up- 
on so very frequently in the life histories of the prominent men 
of New England in that early period. 

The result of this conversion was to beget within him two 
ambitions, namely, to acquire more education, and finally to 
become a minister of the gospel. With this thought in mind, he 
asked and obtained his uncle's permission to go out to work for 
himself. Accordingly, he hired out to a Mr. Grosvenor, a neigh- 
bor, with whom he remained till he had accumulated one hun- 
dred dollars. This with the one hundred from his grandfather's 
estate made the funds for his college course. 

But he was not yet ready for his college course — his prepara- 
tion had been deficient, still it was not beyond hope of remedy. 
And so one December day he walked fourteen miles across the 
country, buying a Latin grammar on the way, and that night 
knocked at the door of the Rev. Enoch Pond for his first lesson 
in Latin. 

It was fortunate for the young country lad that he came under 
the influence of a man like Enoch Pond, for probably no one was 
better calculated to direct him. Mr. Pond was a young man 
himself at that time, only twenty-six, but already becoming 
known as a clear, polemical thinker and writer. After 
graduating from Brown in 1813, he had studied theology 
and in 1815 had become pastor of the church at Ward (now 
Auburn) Mass., where he remained till 1828. In 1832 he accepted 
the chair of systematic theology in the seminary at Bangor, 
Me., and remained connected with that institution up to the year 
of his death in 1882. He was the writer of no less than twenty- 
eight different works, some of them enjoying more than a nomi- 
nal fame, and many exercising much influence on the thought 
and polity of the Congregational church in New England. There 
was not enough difference in age between teacher and student 



60 JOHN D. PIERCE 

to affect in any way the bond of sympathy between them, and for 
almost a year the relation lasted. Probably from this dis- 
tance of time no one can know exactly what young John Pierce, 
the serious-minded, speculative, enthusiastic seeker after knowl- 
edge, derived from the already mature mind and soul of Enoch 
Pond, yet no doubt much that guided him in his longing for 
higher learning and the higher life. Still the student with all 
the admiration he felt for his ttacher did not lose his independ- 
ence of thought. It is quite possible that Mr. Pond may have 
drawn him toward the Congregational pulpit and have directed 
him toward Brown University to continue his studies, for already 
he himself was well and favorably known in the church, and 
Brown was his Alma Mater. But he could not prescribe the 
young man's theology. A little later we shall see — not many 
years either— John Pierce actually expostulating with his former 
teacher over theological matters. 

Brown University at the beginning of the last century was 
already widely known for the quality of its work and the liberal- 
ity of its scholastic atmosphere. Then, as now, it was under the 
direction of the Baptist church, but exercised no control over 
religious opinions, and so in September, 1813, John Pierce, fresh 
from the tutelage of Enoch Pond, with $200 in his pocket, entered 
its halls as a freshman. Providence was not far from his home 
— all the one he had — and there was a hope that he might return 
to the community where he was known, to do some teaching 
when his funds should run low. And the expected happened. 
But notwithstanding the fact that he was compelled to interrupt 
his college work each year to teach a district school three or 
four months, at the end of his course in 1822, he graduated 
among the first eight in a class of thirty-six. On his diploma, 
a faded old parchment, eight by ten inches in size, one may with 
patience read as follows: — 

"VOBIS NOTUH SIT, quod Brovmensis Universitatis in America 

Pretests Johannem Pierce, gradum primum in AHTIBUS 

decoravit, etc., etc." 

During the year following his graduation, from 1822 to 1823, 
he served very successfully as principal of the academy at 



HARJ.Y VliAKS IN NHW I'.NCl.ANl) 61 

Wrentham, Mass., in Rev. Enoch Pond's birthplace, it is quite 
posiible that the latter may have helped him serine tin position. 
Late in 1823 lie entered Princeton Theological Seminary for 
liis course in theology. This institution was a Presbyterian 
school just coming into prominence, and generally regarded as 
standing ior a conservative form of Biblical criticism, it is now 
hard to tell what drew John Pierce thither; it may have been 

this very renown for orthodoxy, or perhaps merely a desire for a 
different intellectual atmosphere. At any rate, it did not resull 
in what he hoped, for he left in January, 1826, after a few 
months' stay. I ii this short time the relations between himself and 

the President had become strained over an essay of Mr. Pierce's 
which betrayed an unwillingness to accept certain features of 
Calvinistic theology. The young man, therefore, decided to 
leave. When urged to remain he remarked that he would not 
stay longer as "the speckled bird to be shot at." On the min- 
utes of iln- seminary faculty this entry was made: "Mr. John 
Pierce was dismissed in good standing in January last." 

It has always been believed even by members of the family 
that Mr. Tierce returned from Princeton to continue his theolog- 
ical studies with Rev. Ivnoch Pond, but recent investigations 
have shown that he studied through 1S24 with Rrof. Calvin I'ark 
of Brown. In this year, also, lie was licensed to preach by the 
Congregational society, and the following year took charge of a 
church. 

Id was now twenty-seven years old, and his school prepara- 
tion was finished. Hi- had completed his studies at a later age 
than most young clergymen of his day, but no training could be 
better calculated than his to develop the powers of the individual. 
In the first place he had brought to his college work a sound 
and mature body, and a consuming eagerness for knowledge. 
The years in which his mind had starved served only to render 
his faculties all the keener upon actual contact with learning, 
and we find him, when his school work was done, an independ- 
ent, thinking man, holding to views which he could justify, with 
a determination characteristic of one who had been dubbed in 
his youth "Stubborn John." 



62 JOHN D. PIERCE 

His studies had resulted not merely in makiug a theologian 
of him, they had developed a speculative bent of mind which led 
him to pause inquiringly before every subject. Like Terence he 
could say, "I am a man, and every thing that concerns man is of 
interest to me." He was also a philosopher and a student of 
civilization, and later, when the occasion demanded, a philoso- 
pher of education, ready to form the school system of a great 
state. 

It is interesting to read the little which has been pre- 
served from that early period of his writings. His 
style, particularly in writings of a literary nature, is 
ponderous, sometimes involved, but there is no con- 
fusion of thought. When once he had investigated a subject 
certain conclusions stood out clearly in his mind, and it took 
good reasons to shake them. His language is the language of 
the educated man of his day, inclined sometimes to be Johnson - 
Ian and florid in rhetoric, but accurate and forceful. The 
reader will be interested, perhaps, to read some extracts from 
the early products of his pen. The first is taken from a sermon 
of the year 1825, preached from Ephesians, 6:4, "But bring them 
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

"3. It is important (the education of children) because the 
general interests of the community are depending upon it. The 
whole nation is composed of families. Hence the state of the 
whole must be as the state of the individual families of which it 
is composed. Obedient children usually make good citizens and 
good subjects and good rulers having been accustomed from their 
early days to observe the rules and regulations of the family, and 
to submit themselves to its government they are prepared to 
regard the laws of the land and to yield obedience to its consti- 
tuted authorities. Such children are prepared, when they arrive 
to years of maturity, to govern themselves, and hence they are 
qualified to make good husbands and wives, good parents and 
guardians. Such persons are qualified to enter upon the active 
scenes of life with honor to themselves, and with a fair prospect 
of being useful members of society. They have been accustomed 
to habits of industry, they have been taught to fear the name of 



KARI/VT YEARS IN NEW ENGLAND 63 

the Lord and to reverence His ordinances and institutions. We 
do not say that all who are well brought up do as they ought ; 
but we do say, and we think the affirmation warranted by gen- 
eral observation and experience, that very few who have been 
well governed and instructed from their early days ever disap- 
point the reasonable expectations of their fond parents. But the 
case is far otherwise with such children as have not been well 
brought up— as have not been restrained and instructed in earl)' 
life. Disobedient children usually make bad citizens, bad sub- 
jects and bad rulers. Not having been taught and made to obey 
at home — not having been accustomed to submit to family gov- 
ernment, they are not prepared to regard the laws of their coun- 
try, or to yield obedience to its lawful authority. They have 
never been taught to govern themselves, and hence they are under 
the government of their feelings, and consequently exposed to 
all manner of excess. Should we visit our common jails and 
state prisons, and houses of correction and learn the history of 
their forlorn and wicked inmates, we should find that twenty - 
three out of twenty- five were once unrestrained and disobedient 
children, beside being exposed to run into all manner of evil, 
and in addition to being bad citizens, subjects and rulers, such 
children make bad husbands and wives, bad parents and guard- 
ians. Since then so much is depending as it respects the general 
interests of society and the proper management of children, how 
important that parents and heads of families bring up their 
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

The second extract is from a fragmentary paper on Dugald 

Stewart (17 1828), the Scottish philosopher, and may be 

referred to his years at Brown. 

"To give the true character of Dugald Stewart, as a philoso- 
pher and as a writer, would require an accurate knowledge of the 
state of metaphysical science when he commenced his specula- 
tions upon the subject. Such knowledge we do not possess. 
Hence, therefore, a few general observations is all that can reas- 
onably be expected. That Mr. Stewart is, both as a philosopher 
and as a writer, a man of no ordinary rank must be admitted bj 
all who have read his works with any degree of candour and 



64 JOHN D. I'IKRCK 

attention. It will not be pretended, except by enthusiastick 
admirers, that Mr. Stewart excels all others, either in delicacy 
of taste, elegance of composition, accuracy of discrimination, or 
fertility of invention — that a considerable share of each really 
and justly belongs to him cannot be denied — that he is nothing 
more than an elegant commentator, without originality of 
thought and without a comprehensive arrangement of subjects, 
will hardly be believed, even though it should be said, except by 
such as are entirely swayed by prejudice, and wholly destitute 
of soundness of judgment — such an observation could not be 
made except by those who envy him his great celebrity, or who 
were totally incapable of understanding the subjects concerning 
which Mr. Stewart has written. II is works, however, will 
always be admired, whenever they are so fortunate as to fall into 
the hands of unprejudiced readers. 

******** 

"But waiving all considerations of this nature, it is proposed 
t<> examine Mr. Stewart's speculations respecting the founda- 
tion of reasoning. The common theory upon this subject is that 
all reasoning, whether moral or demonstrative, is founded upon 
axioms, or rests ultimately upon truths intuitively certain. In 
mathematicks, says Dr. Rcid, the first principles from which we 
reason are a set of axioms which are not only intuitively certain, 
but of which we find it impossible to conceive the contraries to 
be true Dr. Campbell maintains the same, and also that all 
moral reasoning may be reduced to this general axiom, that 
whatever is is, or that it is impossible for the same thing to be 
and not to be. In short, the general supposition has been that 
all correct conclusive reasoning proceeds from axioms, or rests 
ultimately upon a set of truths intuitively certain. But notwith- 
standing the weight of authority maintaining this doctrine, Mr. 
Stewart has controverted the point, and shown conclusively that 
no kind of reasoning is founded upon axioms as intuitive truths, 
but on very different grounds — in mathematical science demon- 
stration is built entirely upon definitions — and in all the other 
sciences reasoning is founded on well ascertained facts— defini- 
tions holding the same place in mathematicks as facts in all the 



K,ARJ<Y VHARS IN NJCW ltNGr<AND 65 

other branches of knowledge. Definitions and assumed facts 
Mr. Stewart calls the principles of reasoning, because from them 
as a datum a train of reasoning may proceed. Axioms, or intui- 
tive truths, he calls elements of reason, not because any truth 
can ever be deduced from them, but because they form, as Mr. 
Stewart expresses it, a part of those original stamina of human 
reason which are equally essential to all the pursuits of science, 
and to all the active concerns of life. It is true, indeed, in math- 
ematical science that unless such intuitive truths as these — things 
equal to the same are equal to one another, if equals be added to 
equals the wholes are equal, the whole is greater than its parts, 
or any of the nine first elements in Euclid, — be admitted there 
can be no demonstration; but it is equally true that no inference 
or conclusion can be deduced from any of them or from all of 
them, or from all of them together, therefore no demonstration 
can be founded upon them. J,et any one make the attempt and 
see if he can deduce from any number of mathematical axioms 
an unknown truth." 



CHAPTER VI. 

FIRST YEARS IN TIIK MINISTRY 

After continuing his theological studies through the year 1SJ4 
John Tierce — the Reverend John Tierce now — was ready to enter 
upon the duties of the actual ministry to which he had looked 
forward ever since his conversion. In January, 1825, he was 
elected pastor at Sangerfield, Oneida county. New York. 

The future looked bright for the young clergyman. He had 
prepared himself at great pains for a career which now was 
dawning; it was time, also, for the happy consummation of a 
romance. Back in Holden, Massachusetts, not far from Paxton, 
where he had spent his boyhood, Millicent Estabrook, his 
betrothed was waiting. In his student years at Brown he had 
gone back to his home county to teach a winter school, and with 
other conquests had won the heart of a pupil. She was a young 
woman of more than usual thoughtfulness, and had dreamed of 
sometime becoming a foreign missionary, but she relinquished 
her hopes to become a preacher's wife. On February 1, 1825, 
she and Mr. Pierce were married, and later they made a short 
trip to Boston where Mrs. Pierce's brother. Col. Estabrook, was 
collector of the port. The trip coincided with the visit of Gen. 
Lafayette to the city, and the young couple were fortunate enough 
to be presented to the distinguished Frenchman at a banquet in 
his honor, to which they were invited. 

The Sangerfield period of Mr. Pierce's life was a most import- 
ant one, and full of far-reaching consequences in the shaping of 
his future. We shall, therefore, dwell upon it at some length. 

Accompanied by his young wife and his mother, who had 
come now to make her home with him, Mr. Pierce reached the 
scene of his labors early in the year aud at once began his pas- 
toral duties. But he wanted still to be teacher as well as 
preacher, and in connection with his church organized a school 

66 



FIRST YEARS IN Tiuc MINISTRY 67 

in which hoth he and Mrs. Pierce taught. Two years now 
slipped by, years that were busy, but not altogether happy ones. 
Up from the western part of the state, like a storm-cloud ready 
to burst, came an epidemic of fury and fanaticism that left much 
trouble and disturbance in its track. It reached the little com- 
munity in Oneida county where John J). Pierce wis laboring, 
and ravaged there as elsewhere. 

To appreciate the situation at this time one must recall some 
of the events in connection with the formation of the Anti- 
Masonic party in American politics, a party which arose as the 
result of the excitement aroused by the mysterious disappearance 
of one William Morgan. Morgan, an American by birth, had 
come from York, Upper Canada, and settled in Batavia, New 
York. Towards the middle of 1826 it was rumored that he was 
about to publish a book exposing the secrets of Masonry, and 
under color of some criminal process he was lodged in the county 
jail at Canandaigua. On the 12th of September he was liberated, 
but as he was leaving the jail he was seized by unknown parties, 
forced into a carriage and spirited away. His fate remains a 
mystery to this day. In the subsequent investigation it was 
proved that he was taken blindfolded in a closed conveyance to 
the Niagara frontier, but his further whereabouts could not be 
traced. Popular excitement claimed that he was abducted by the 
Masons, and upon refusing to withdraw his book and renew his 
oath of secrecy, was drowned in the Niagara River. 

Morgan's book, however, appeared and was followed by 
others of a similar character, and while the revelations generally 
fell far short of expectations, under the stress of public feeling 
there speedily developed a powerful opposition to Masonry and 
other secret societies. All western New York was in a turmoil, 
the agitation even extended to other states, and in the end 
took on a political and national significance. 

When this movement reached Oneida county and Sangertield, 
there was sure to be trouble in the little church, for John D. 
Pierce was a Mason, and had been one for several years. Con- 
siderable dissatisfaction at once began to manifest itself, and 
there were some who claimed that they ought not to retain a 



68 JOHN D. FIERCE 

pastor who was a member of a secret order. About this time, 
also, occurred the death of Mrs. Pierce, 1 and this sorrow added to 
his other trials led Mr. Pierce to ask for his dismissal. Some 
differences in doctrine had been discovered by those who were 
opposed to the pastor, but the fact that he refused to sever his 
connection with Masonry in this time of panic was without doubt 
the real grievance of the congregation. Later, when the difficul- 
ties were all temporarily adjusted, the whole history of the 
unpleasantness was written down and the old manuscript is now 
drawn upon for its evidence. In regard to Masonry, Mr. Pierce 
says: — 

"The second reason urged for my dismission is Masonry. 
On tbis subject I have but little to say. If it was not sufficient 
to procure my dismission two years ago when I offered to be dis- 
missed, it is no reason why I should now be dismissed. Besides 
I have conformed to the letter and spirit of the resolution of the 
Association passed at the last meeting. And while I see fit to do 
so, I have nothing more to do with it than other men; and tbat 
is, the right of thinking my own thoughts on the subject, and of 
declaring them when asked or not, as I deem most proper. 
Under these circumstances if you say that it is a good reason 
why I should be dismissed, you declare to the world in effect that 
I am no longer a fit person to preach the gospel — ." 

When the matter came to a vote, however, the congregation 
almost unanimously asked Mr. Pierce to continue as pastor. 
The arrears in salary were paid, and his financial support for the 
future put on a sound and permanent basis. Believing that 
everything militating against the success of his work had been 
removed, he now began to plan for a home in Saugerfield. In 
1829 he married Miss Mary Ann Cleveland, an amiable and 
accomplished young woman, daughter of Gen. Cleveland of 
Madison, New York, and built a house and furnished it. But 
alas, his expectations for a peaceful pastorate were doomed to be 
disappointed. Hardly was he settled in his new house before the 
smouldering elements of discord broke out with new fury, and 

' Mrs. Pierce ami her infant son are buried in the cemetery at Sangerfield. 



FIRST YEARS IN THE MINISTRY 69 

early in 1830 the church petitioned the Association for Mr. 
Pierce's dismission. 

The objections urged against him were differences in doctrine, 
Masonry, and loss of usefulness, and his defense lies before us. 
In many respects it is a striking document. Mr. Pierce takes up 
his doctrinal beliefs one by one, compares them with the views 
held by the complaining members of the church, and then pro- 
ceeds to elucidate, justify and defend them. He argues well, 
and cites authorities from Augustine to Luther, and Calvin, and 
on down to Jonathan Edwards and other later writers. The 
earnestness with which he does this shows how important trivial 
considerations of theology were thought to be seventy- five years 
ago. Whether "the essence of all sin is selfishness," or "depravity 
belongs exclusively to the heart," as Mr. Pierce was accused of 
believing, does not seem a very momentous thing now, nor much 
calculated to interfere with pastoral success. 

That Mr. Pierce's orthodoxy should have been challenged at 
this time seems all the more strange in the light of a letter which 
he wrote to his old friend and teacher, Dr. Enoch Pond, the 
same year. It appears that Dr. Pond had accepted the editor- 
ship of The Spirit of the Pilgrims, a publication recently estab- 
lished in Boston, and designed to promote the interests of 
orthodoxy in the church. When Mr. Pierce heard of this he 
addressed him a letter beginning thus: — 
"Rev. & dear Sir: 

Ever since I left your friendly abode where I commenced 
my course of study, I have cherished a high respect for you as a 
man of learning and as a Christian minister. I have regarded 
you as t advocate, unyielding and firm, of t leading & essential 
truths of t gospel. It was, therefore, with deep concern that I 
learned the other day th you had recently left your people to 
take charge of t. S. of t. P. In some circumstances such an 
arrangement would have given me much satisfaction, because I 
believe you are well qualified to conduct ably a work whose ob- 
ject it shall be to inculcate and defend t great and fundamental 
doctrines of divine revelation. But I cannot, so far, regard t. S. 
of t. P. in this light. I think t. P. would be unwilling to own 



70 JOHN D. PIKRCU 

such a work. It professes to be highly orthodox; but is ortho- 
doxy wh embraces in its arms errors of every description. In t 
first No. it professes to give an outline of t gospel. But how 
meagre a view of t gospel this! There is nothing in it discrim- 
inating — nothing wh t rankest Arminian may not assent to. T 
universal decrees of and agency of G — his sovereignty — election 
and reprobation — & disinterested benevolence, or t essence of true 
religion find no place. Are those things wh always distinguish t 
gospel from all false schemes of religion to be excluded? Are 
these things to be left out of a work wh claims to bet. S. of t P., 
which prophets & apostles took so much pains to establish & 
defend, etc.?" 

As to Masonry, we have already seen Mr. Pierce's rejoinder. 
But the third objection made against him was the one, we may 
believe, which touched him most keenly, and in the light of his 
subsequent career for fifty years, seems now like a burlesque on 
the judgment of some very well-meaning, and no doubt pious 
people. 

"The third reason urged for my dismission is loss of useful- 
ness. If my usefulness is lost, how came it to be destroyed? Is 
it my fault? Has my deportment among the people been such 
as to destroy it? Or is it the fault of members of the church? 
Have they not said and done many things which must greatly 
have tended to injure it? There is evidently a fault somewhere, 
if my usefulness in this place is at an end. If it is owing to 
unchristian conduct in me, then I ought to humble myself before 
God — plead guilty and be silent. But is my usefulness at an end? 
The subject certainly demands investigation, and it is my inten- 
tion to go into it so far as to show that if it be lost, the respon- 
sibility of it does not rest with me. So much is done in justice 
to myself." 

The appeal to the Association resulted in a complete vindica- 
tion of Mr. Pierce on every point. Particularly was his theology 
pronounced sound and in accordance "with the confession of 
faith of this Association, and with the doctrines which are, and 
have been long known in this region and in New England under 
the name of the orthodox doctrines or Strict Calvanism." 



FIRST YEARS IN THE MINISTRY 71 

The Association, however, in light of all the circumstances ) 
agreed that it would be for the best to dissolve the relations 
between pastor and people, but that Mr. Pierce should receive 
compensation for the financial loss he would incur through such a 
settlement. As this proposal represented Mr. Pierce's wishes, it 
was assented to by both parties, and in this way the matter 
was closed. 

In the summer of 1830, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce removed from 
Sangerfield to Goshen, Conn., where a sister of Mrs. Pierce was 
living. Mr. Pierce acted as teacher in an academy for a time, 
and also preached as occasion offered, in the pulpits of the sur- 
rounding towns. But neither the young pastor nor his wife was 
contented. Mrs. Pierce said the only business of the place was 
going to mill and to meeting, and discussing the merits of quar- 
rels that were a hundred years old. It was just at this time that 
the call of the West began to be heard in New England, and 
along with many others Mr. Pierce harkened to the voice. Hav- 
ing been appointed by the American Home Missionary Society to 
work in Illinois, or Michigan, he set out in the early part of 1831 
to spy out the land before moving his family into the new coun- 
try. His wife returned for the time to her father's home 
in New York, and his mother, who did not wish to undergo the 
privations of frontier life, went to live with a daughter in Massa- 
chusetts. l 

At this point we can hardly forbear to moralize a little over 
some of the strange turns in human destiny. Doubtless in the 
life history of almost every individual there comes somewhere a 
parting of the road involving decisions of much moment in one's 
after life. If John D. Pierce's pastorate at Sangerfield had 
proved a pleasant one, he doubtless would never have turned his 
face toward the wilderness. We do not imagine that he would 

1 Mrs. Sarah Davis (Pierce) Foster died May 23, 1348, aged eighty-four, and 
her grave is in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord. After her return from 
Oneida County. New York, she lived for some years with Mr. Pierce's only 
sister Sally (Seep. 57). wife of Edmund Hosmer, of Concord, friend of Thoreau, 
Emerson, and Hawthorne, and himself a thinker and scholar. Mrs. Hosmer, 
who was the mother of ten children, all prominent and successful in life, died 
July 8, 1890, at the age of ninety-five. 



72 JOHN D. PIERCE 

have lived an obscure life in New England, like so many clergy- 
men of his day and generation, content to vegetate in some quiet 
community, and ambitious only to preserve a strict quarantine 
against new theological ideas. He would have grown in any 
environment, but he would probably have had no opportunity 
to inaugurate a great system of education for a commonwealth. 



CHAPTER VII. 

WITH THE PIONEERS IN MICHIGAN 

Mr. Pierce departed for the West in May, 1831, and by the 
first of June had reached Detroit. Here he met a committee of 
the Home Missionar}' Society, with whom he consulted in regard 
to future operations and a desirable field of labor. In the course 
of the discussion the question of church government and affilia- 
tion, and the formation of new churches, was brought up, and the 
remark was dropped that it was expected that he would join the 
Presbyterian Church and not attempt to organize any Congrega- 
tional societies; Congregationalism might do for New England, 
but it was not adapted to the wilderness. The young clergy- 
man's answer was emphatic. He was satisfied, he said, that Con- 
gregationalism was the Scriptural mode of church government, 
and that if it was adapted to the primitive times in New Eng- 
land it would not be less so to the new settlements of the west. 

From Detroit he journeyed inland, but let us quote his own 
words: — l 

"Leaving Detroit, I spent four Sabbaths at Ann Arbor, and 
then passed on to Marshall, recently established as the seat of 
justice for Calhoun County. Arriving here the last of June, I 
found one or two shanties and a double log house partly done. 
The next day, it being the Sabbath day, July 1st, 1831, by con- 
sent of the owner of the log house a meeting was appointed. The 
entire community assembled; not one of the settlers was absent. 
When the congregation came together it numbered about twenty- 
five. Some present were non-residents in search of locations, 
land lookers as they were then called. The novelty of the scene 
induced all to attend. There was one congressman and one 
judge from the east, and others were men of learning and intel- 

1 "Congregationalism in Michigan." Michigan Pioneer and Historical 
Collections. Vol, 12, p. 354. 

73 



74 JOHN D. riKRCK 

ligence. At that time there were three white females in the 
country, two at Marshall, and one twelve miles west. I never 
preached to a more attentive congregation. This was my text, 
found in Gen. 3:10: "And he said, I heard thy voice in the 
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself." 
It was in}' purpose to show that without a revelation from God 
man had reason to despair of being saved. This was the first 
Christian assembly, and the first sermon ever preached in all that 
region for hundreds of miles in extent, where the red man and 
his companion hunter, the wolf, had roamed as free as air for 
ages." 

Mr. Pierce had originally intended to locate in Chicago, but 
on this preliminary trip he was so attracted to Marshall, after 
staying there some three months, that he determined to return 
east for his family and settle there. Late in the autumn he was 
back again in Calhoun County, bag and baggage, transporting his 
goods from Detroit by ox teams. In Chapter III, page 45, we 
have quoted from Rev. Mr. Thompson's account of how he met 
Mr. Pierce and his party in the woods west of Jackson when he 
was moving in from Detroit. We now continue the narrative: — 

"Pate in the evening we saw the light of the long-looked-for 
tavern, as it shone through the chinks of the logs, a sight most 
welcome to us. Our caravan halted before the door — only there 
was no door there, a blanket being where the door should be. 
The shanty was only partly covered with shakes; the rain was 
pouring in at one end, and a cook-stove stood on the ground in 
the middle. The stove was soon put in requisition, and the 
coarse fare was a great relief to us hungry, weary mortals. After 
supper we prepared to retire for the night, but where to retire to 
was the question. Some of the company packed themselves 
away in the only bedstead, others under it on the ground, their 
husbands next, and the remainder of us occupying a little more 
than the remainder of the dry ground in the shanty. Sleep soon 
came to the relief of the weary bodies, — at least it was so with one 
of the number. The morning came, a dark, gloomy morning; 
the rain was still falling, so we made another requisition on the 
potato pile and pork barrel, after which Mrs. Pierce sang so 



WITH TIIK PIONKKRS IN MICHIGAN 75 

beautifully as few persons can sing, 'Home Sweet Home,' and 
then turned her face to the wall and wept. .... 

That day we reached Marshall, consisting then of one log house, 
and another in process of erection; a few immigrants had planted 
themselves in the beautiful and fertile laud of that vicinity. The 
next day being the Sabbath, we had public worship; a young 
Methodist clergyman by the name of Pilcher preached in the 
morning, and the Rev. J. D. Pierce, one of our company, in the 
afternoon. These meetings were held in the unfinished log 
house of Mr. Sidney Ketchum." 

It had been Mr. Pierce's intention to settle somewhere 
beyond Marshall, near Battle Creek, where he had purchased 
some land, but upon his arrival from the east he was urged by 
the people of the little settlement to locate there and make his 
home in their midst. There were already eight college-bred 
men there, — this fact appealed to him — and then the people 
promised to do what they could toward his support. To show 
their purpose they gave him a village lot with a double log house 
upon it, which he immediately occupied. 

Mr. Pierce did not come into the territory like so many in the 
pioneer period without money or equipment. His father-in-law, 
General Cleveland, of Madison, New York, a gentleman of 
wealth and prominence, had fitted the couple out with abundant 
supplies and furniture, and they were able to begin housekeeping 
under comparatively favorable circumstances. The double log 
house was fitted up to the extent of its possibilities, and since it 
was the most commodious house in the little settlement, it 
speedily became a stopping place for travellers and land-lookers. 
With all her aristocratic training, Mrs. Pierce was a frugal 
housewife, and she saw here a way to add an honest dollar now 
and then to the income of her missionary husband. As one 
reads the accounts of the settling of Calhoun County, he comes 
upon many tributes to the good accommodations of the Pierce 
house. But Mr. Pierce was first of all a preacher, and his house 
served also for a church. For the first two years meetings were 
held in it almost every Sabbath. And when the Methodist 
circuit-rider appeared on his quest for souls, as he did soon, two 



76 JOHN D. PIERCE 

services a week were kept up in the little village with cordial 
relations. The first winter some sixty persons remained over in 
Marshall. In the spring more settlers came, and the double log 
house, big as it was, could hardly contain the strangers. But here 
is Mr. Pierce's own chronicle of the fateful year: 

"In May, 1832, the First Congregational Church was formed, 
consisting of seven members. Mr. Steven Kimball was chosen its 
first deacon. It was in July of this year that the cholera, 'the 
pestilence that walketh in the darkness, and the destruction that 
wasteth at noonday,' came, and two of our members died. That 
was truly a day of gloom. Such a one I hope never to see again. 
One of the victims was my own wife, a noble Christian woman, 
whose lifeless form I was under the necessity of preparing for the 
grave with my own hands, assisted by one man, and he a stranger. 
Her death was occasioned by her sympathy for others in distress. 
She visited a family that had just moved in from Detroit to escape 
the dreaded cholera, from whom a son had just been taken to the 
grave, 'for the express purpose,' as she expressed it, 'of tryingto 
comfort them a little. On entering the house she found the 
mother dying, the father prostrate, and another son coming down 
with the disease, who soon after died. She was deeply moved. 
On her return she said, 'I cried like a child when I saw how 
afflicted they were.' Immediately after, she too was taken with 
all the fearful symptome, and it soon became evident that she 
must go, and in about twenty hours was on her way to her last 
resting place; but she died in hope, — having no fear of death, — 
praying for her two little ones. I niay add that when it was 
known that the cholera was in our midst, many fled the place. 
There remained about seventy persons. Of this number eight 
died, ten others were severely attacked, but recovered; and all 
within the compass of eight days." 

Thus Mr. Pierce was a second time bereaved, and two babes were 
left without a mother's care. Not being able to provide for his 
own children properly in Marshall, he took them in the fall of 
1832 to his wife's home in Madison, N. Y. He spent the follow- 
ing winter there and elsewhere preaching, but the next year 
returned to Michigan and took up his labors again in the same 



WITH THE PIONKKRS IN MICHIGAN 77 

field. About this time he began preaching occasionally in Homer 
township, where a little church of twenty members was built up, 
and later he helped establish a church in Richland, Kalamazoo 
County. He also journeyed about through the surrounding 
settlements, preaching in school houses, private dwellings, or 
taverns. In 1874 Mr. Pierce attended a pioneer gathering in 
Marshall, and in the course of some remarks touching his early 
days there, said: — 

"I held the first meeting and organized the first church also, 
in both of the counties of Branch and Eaton, and married the 
first pair and preached the first funeral sermon in Calhoun and 
Eaton counties. I have travelled a hundred miles to marry a 
pair and to preach a funeral sermon." 

During this year (1833) he married Miss Harriet Reed, who had 
been a member of his Sangerfield church, but was at this time 
teaching at Hamilton, N. Y., where she had formerly been a stu- 
dent. Although her tastes were literary, and her life up to this 
time had been devoted to study and education, under the enthus- 
iasm of Mr. Pierce she was eager to try pioneer life in the west, 
and no disenchantment came when brought face to face with 
actual conditions. The women of Michigan in that primitive 
time were of heroic stamp, and no story of our early history is 
complete which does not recognize their courage. No sacrifice was 
too great for them, no danger too threatening, and side by side 
with their husbands they entered the wilderness, and left there 
the heritage of their virtue aud fortitude. 

When Mr. and Mrs. Pierce reached Marshall in the summer 
of 1833, they found the place astir with activity and enterprise, 
and they entered heartily into the life of the community. Mrs. 
Pierce in her new home showed the same enthusiasm and devo- 
tion to duty that had characterized her in her school work in the 
East, and became at once a faithful help-meet to her husband. 
Wherever sickness'ravaged the settlement she hastened with com- 
fort and assistance; she was always a friend of the poor and 
needy, and bestowed a bountiful hospitality upon the stranger 
within her gates. During the absence of her husband on his 
preaching trips, and later when engaged in his public official work 



78 JOHN D. PIERCE 

for the state, she was the prudent housewife and manager, and 
directed with skillful hand the various business interests which 
devolved upon her. Almost three-quarters of a century has 
passed since she first saw that little collection of log houses on 
the banks of the Kalamazoo River. Most of the men and women 
she knew there in that early day have long since been sleeping 
with her husband in that beautiful cemetery on the river bank, 
but she has been spared, venerable and honored, to live over into 
the new century. And now at the age of 96, — she was born Sep- 
tember 20, 1S09 — she greets the appearance of this volume with 
lively interest, having done much in many ways to make its pub- 
lication possible. 

Mr. Pierce came to Marshall as a missionary, and we have 
told of the zeal with which he looked after the religious interests 
of the community. But he was a public-spirited citizen as well 
as clergyman. No atmosphere of false ecclesiastical dignity sur- 
rounded him. When the first frame house was erected in Marshall, 
during the "raising" he held the foot of one of the corner posts of 
the structure; ho was postmaster of the place and kept all the 
mail in the case of the family clock; he also traded in lands, and 
in 1832 we find records of his selling 160 acres near what is now 
Battle Creek, to Moses Hall, for fourteen shillings an acre. He 
with others built the mill at Ceresco on the Kalamazoo River, and 
he it was who named the place after Ceres, the goddess of agri- 
culture. He also owned a farm, and was interested in every- 
thing that related to the intellectual and political progress of the 
community. He belonged to various debating and literary socie- 
ties. There is before us as we write, the faded pages of an essay, 
"The Earth — Its History and Final Destiny," which begins: — 

"Gentlemen of the Marshall Lyceum!" 

When the Democratic Expounder was started in 1838 he 
became a regular contributor to its pages. Some of his articles 
from the time of the "Railroad War" we shall have occasion to 
refer to in a subsequent chapter. But let us now follow his career 
in public life during the first few years of Michigan's statehood. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 

On the 29th of June, 1832, a law was passed by the Territorial 
legislature authorizing an election in the following October to 
decide "whether it be expedient for the people of the Territory to 
form a State government." The resulting vote showed an over- 
whelming desire for the change. But the coming of the cholera, 
and the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, conspired to retard 
any definite move in that direction, and so it was not till January, 
1835, that an act was passed providing for the election of dele- 
gates which should assemble in Detroit in May to formulate a 
constitution and state government. This convention met, and 
after much discussion submitted a constitution which was adopted 
in October of the same year. The new constitution did not differ 
materially from those of the other states carved out of the North- 
west Territory except in its provisions for education, which in 
the convention had been in the hands of Isaac E. Crary, the 
chairman of the committee on education. 

Mr. Crary was in every way a distinguished man, and his 
memory deserves well of the citizens of Michigan. He came of 
good Puritan stock, and was born in Preston, Conn., Oct. 2, 
1804. At the age of twenty he entered Washington (now Trinity) 
College where he graduated. Later he read law, was admitted 
to the bar, and practiced for two years. During this period he 
was also associated with George D. Prentice in editing The New 
England Review of Hartford. In 1832 he removed to Marshall, 
where he at once became prominent in local affairs. Upon the 
reorganization of the 6tate militia in 1836 he was appointed major- 
general of the third division. Here is the origin of the title of 
"General" by which he is usually known. In Congress he was 
once twitted by Tom Corwin of having seen no other battle than 
that of the "Watermelon patch" in the wilds of Michigan. 

79 



80 JOHN D. PIERCE 

Mr. Crary's career in Washington in the service of the state 
was an honorable one. He did yeoman service in the Constitu- 
tional Convention to which reference has been made, and also in 
the National House of Representatives. Much of the work car- 
ried out so successfully by Mr. Pierce when Superintendent of 
Public Instruction was made possible by his encouragement and 
cooperation. Some people hold that Mr. Crary has never received 
due recognition for the share he had in the establishment of our 
school system, and that he rather than John D. Pierce should 
get credit for the plan. A good deal of investigation has per- 
suaded us that there is no real ground for this belief. Mr. Crary 
and Mr. Pierce were intimate friends. They counseled together 
on all phases of educational work, as Mr. Pierce's own words 1 
will show, but that Mr. Crary was ever more than an enthusias- 
tic adviser of Mr. Pierce is nowhere apparent. Mr. Yanliureu's 
tribute to him is a fair one: "There was not a particle of the 
partisan in Isaac E. Crary. If he erred in his political course it 
was error of his judgment and not of intention. That he was a 
politician is true. But whether discussing party principles at 
the hustings, or national affairs in legislative council, he was the 
same candid, able counselor in the one case as the other. He was 
foremost among our early statesmen in discovering the wants of 
the new state, and his master hand is seen not only in its full 
and thorough organization, but in the establishment of those 
institutions that have made it a great and prosperous common- 
wealth." 

He died in 1854 and was buried in the cemetery at Marshall. 

We have now come to Mr. Pierce's entrance into public life 
and can do no better than to quote from his own account 2 of it, 
which our observation touching the organization of the state gov- 
ernment ami the career of Gen. Isaac Crary will, we hope, serve 
to make clear. 

"It was at this period of our history that the Michigan school 
system had its inception and origin. Gen. I. E. Crary, a grad- 

1 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 17, p. 245. 
- Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, Vol. 1. 




THE PIERCE OAK IN MARSHALL 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 81 

uate of an eastern college, and a warm friend of education, was 
for a year or two an inmate of my house. The condition and 
prospects of our new State were often subjects of discussion, and 
especially of schools of various grades, from the highest to the 
lowest." 

"About this time Cousin's report of the Prussian system 
made to the French minister of public instruction came into my 
hands, and it was read with much interest. Sitting one pleasant 
afternoon upon a log on the hill north of where the court house 
at Marshall now stands, Gen. Crary and myself discussed for a 
long time the fundamental principles which were deemed import- 
ant for the convention to adopt in laying the foundations of our 
State. The subject of education was a theme of especial interest. 
It was agreed, if possible, that it should make a distinct branch 
of the government, and that the constitution ought to provide 
for an officer who should have the whole matter in charge and 
thus keep its importance perpetually before the public mind. 



"Up to this period, though I had often counseled with Mr. 
Crary as to what ought to be done to promote the best interests 
of our new State, yet I had not thought of ever occupying the 
position provided for by the constitution, being constantly 
employed in the work of a missionary of the American Home 
Missionary Society. On his way to Washington General Crary 
held a consultation with Governor Mason, and proposed my 
name for the newly created office. The Governor expressed a 
wish to see me on the subject, as we were then wholly unac- 
quainted. I accordingly visited Detroit and had an interview 
with the Governor, about the 20th of July. After discussing the 
matter at some length, the result was that on the 26th of the 
same month in 1836, I was nominated and unanimously confirmed 
as Superintendent of Public Instruction." 

After Mr. Pierce received his commission to office he deter- 
mined to go east and study the operation of schools. As he says, 
his object was "information in regard to schools, from the pri- 
mary school to the University; their organization, management 



82 JOHN D. PIERCE 

and support. The whole subject has been committed to my 
hands. Besides, I had over a million acres of University and 
school lands to look after. Such, then, was the responsibility 
and such the interests involved, — interests not only for the then 
present, but for the future. A failure, or even a bad beginning, 
must necessarily affect the State in its educational interests for a 
long time." 

As ready money was scarce, Mr. Pierce sold his big log house 
in Marshall for $600 to get funds for the trip. Mrs. Pierce, who 
was in poor health at this time, accompanied him. They left in 
August, going in a lumber wagon to Detroit, and thence by 
steamboat to Buffalo. The rest of the way was made by canal 
boat, train and stage. 

In this connection it is interesting to note a prophecy made 
by Mr. Pierce on this visit to New England. At a dinner party 
given in his honor in Concord by his sister, Mrs. Hosmer, he 
remarked that he had been three weeks on the road from Mich- 
igan, but that he should live to see the day when the trip could 
be made in one. The Concord philosophers laughed and said he 
was visionary, yet he himself made the journey before his death 
in a day and a half. 

While in the east he conferred with man)' prominent men, 
among whom he names John A. Dix, Secretary of State, and 
Superintendent of Common Schools, in New York, Governor 
William L. Marcy of New York, and Edward Everett, Governor 
of Massachusetts. He was fortunate enough also to meet Presi- 
dent Humphrey of Amherst while travelling by stage; he attended 
Commencement exercises at Brown, then journeyed to Connecti- 
cut where he met President Jeremiah Day of Yale. On his way 
back across Massachusetts he visited the scene of his boyhood 
at Paxton and preached there. He also found time enough to 
attend the American Institute of Instruction held at Worcester. 

Nothing shows the versatile genius of Mr. Pierce more than 
the record of this trip. He had suddenly emerged from a remote 
settlement on the frontier, laid aside the garb of a frontier mis- 
sionary, and now was a keen observer and investigator of educa- 
tional affairs. The men and institutions that he drew upon for 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 83 

ideas were widely known, and he knew exactly what help they 
could give him. The fact, also, that he attended the Institute of 
Instruction, and later the College of Professional Teachers at 
Cincinnati, is significant. These gatherings were tbe two great 
teachers' associations of America at that time, — the one in Mas- 
sachusetts combining lyceum features with those of a convention, 
the other more like a modern teachers' institute. The most vital 
questions and needs of education were discussed at these meet- 
ings, and John D. Pierce had suddenly become an educator. 
And yet not suddenly ; his great nature was showing itself merely 
in a new phase. 

If Mr. Pierce met Horace Mann at this time — and it is doubt- 
ful — it was surely at this meeting at Worcester, for a great ques- 
tion was up at the session of 1836, a question that Michigan had 
already settled, viz., the appointment of a superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction for the state. It was voted at this meeting to 
memorialize the legislature to that end, but when the matter was 
finally worked out, instead of a superintendent there was aboard 
of education, and Horace Mann was its first secretary. 

The meeting of teachers at Cincinnati in October, which Mr. 
Pierce attended on his way home, was a source of much encour- 
agement to him. If the organization stood for anything it was 
for the "diffusion of knowledge in regard to education, and 
especially by aiming at the elevation of the character of teachers 
who shall have adopted instruction as their regular profession." ' 
For Mr. Pierce's own views on the teacher's profession and 
training, the reader is referred to a subsequent chapter. 

Upon his return to Marshall Mr. Pierce found that property 
had risen in value, and he was obliged to pay $1500 for a house. 
From a financial point of view the interruption of residence there 
had been a costly experience. He now set about drawing up a 
report to the legislature, and his recommendations were adopted 
practically in their entirety. The way was thus ready for tangible 
results. 

Although he kept his office at Marshall much of the time 

i Article I. of the constitution of the College of Professional Teachers. 



84 JOHN D. PIERCE 

while he was Superintendent, still the fact that the seat of govern- 
ment was at Detroit necessitated his absence from home for long 
periods. Whenever he was in Detroit he boarded with Mrs. Rlihu 
Newberry whose husband had come originally from SangerGeld, 
New York. It was in this home that he became acquainted with 
John Starkweather, later a clerk in his office. Before Mr. Pierce's 
term of office expired Mr. Starkweather bought a school-land 
farm near Ypsilanti, and in the course of time became one of the 
prominent citizens of Washtenaw county. When Mr. Pierce 
transferred his residence to Ypsilanti in 1853 he found a 
staunch friend in Mr. Starkweather, and in the memorial chapel 
erected by Mrs. Starkweather in the Ypsilanti cemetery, there is 
a handsome window to his memory. 

Mr. Pierce's incumbency of office lasted till the middle of 
1841, almost five years, and in this time he launched the school 
system of the state. He was an indefatigable worker. In order 
that the common schools should be put on a secure basis in the 
allotment of public money, he advocated that the control of the 
sixteenth sections be taken away from the townships and given 
over to the State. But this was a matter in the hands of Con- 
gress, and Congress was notoriously hostile to the ambitions of 
the new State. However, in Michigan's representative, General 
Crary, the commonwealth had an adroit defender. When the 
ordinance for the admission of the territory was drafted at Wash- 
ington, Mr. Crary acted with the committee, and cleverly man- 
aged to have the act worded so that the desired change might be 
made. The result fully showed the wisdom of Mr. Pierce's 
belief. "It infused new vigor into our new-born system," was 
his comment, and the organization of district schools, with the 
help of apportioned state funds, became a matter of pride in 
every settled part of the state. 1 

The question of the reorganization of the University was like- 
wise a task that called for all his skill. Whether to center the 
energies of the state upon one university, or to grant to an 
indefinite number of institutions the right to bestow degrees, was 

1 See Michigan Historical and Pioneer Collections. Vol. I, p. 40, et. so. 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 85 

the problem. In order to prepare for the contest that was sure to 
come, he addressed a circular letter in the summer of 1837 to a 
number of prominent men over the country. The replies were 
unanimously in favor of one central university. This was 
Bishop Mcllvaine's response: 

"Dear Sir: 

Long absence from home has prevented my answering 
your letter sooner than the present. It requires but little time to 
make up an opinion on the question you propose. I consider the 
present multiplication of institutions called colleges, and 
empowered to confer degrees, exceedingly detrimental to the 
interests of genuine education. They so divide patronage as to 
create competition, which instead of leading to the result which 
some suppose must be the consequence, — of elevating the stand- 
ing of the several institutions — produce precisely the opposite. 
An uneducated community is to be courted and pleased, a com- 
munity easily taken with name and promises, and lists of students, 
new methods, short roads and cheap acquirements. 

"Who shall please said community the most, becomes the 
strife. The strong temptation then is to lower the terms of 
admission, retain the names, but lower the amount of studies, 
relax the discipline, confer degrees on persons not fit to be soph- 
omores, and so make the honor of a graduate a miserable weed 
instead of a classic laurel. 

"The prima laurea liberates educationis has greatly withered 
in these parts. Where such multiplications have taken place it 
is difficult for an institution that wishes to maintain a dignified 
stand to compete in patronage with others of less conscience in 
such matters. 

"I consider that with the property devoted to education in 
Michigan, you have a most noble opportunity of taking and 
holding dignified ground on this subject, of building a break- 
water against the winds and waves by which other less independ- 
ent institutions are in danger of being overwhelmed, behind 
which the sciences and classics may anchor in peace, and have 
otiuin cum dignitate. I would say, by all means improve it by 
having but one place of conferring degrees in Michigan, and that 



86 JOHN D. PIERCE 

a university perfectly endowed and furnished. Other States will 
supply the little colleges. Be it yours to set the example of a 
genuine university, a mother of learning, rejecting, not follow- 
ing the opinions of the inexperienced on the subjects of education. 

Yours very truly, 

C. P. McIi/vaine." 

Mr. Pierce left no stone unturned to carry his point. He 
wrote in defense of the plan, he lobbied for it, he spoke for it. 
In 1838, while the matter was still in doubt he appealed to the 
Legislature in a report which closed as follows: — 

"Deeming the question above discussed to be one of vital 
importance, the Superintendent has felt constrained, in the out- 
set of that career of improvement on which the State seems dis- 
posed to enter, to present to the consideration of the Legislatuie 
his views in an extended form on the subject." 

"It is to be borne in mind that the policy now adopted is 
destined to affect the literary standing and character of the State, 
not only for the time of the present generation, but so long as 
the republic and its institutions shall be preserved; nay, more, — 
so long as its name and the memorial of its deeds shall be read 
in story or in song." 

Time has proved the wisdom of John D. Pierce's efforts here, 
and likewise in another matter which has almost escaped the 
attention of our historians. No sooner had Michigan become a 
State than a feeling of inflation seized the minds of our law 
makers — they were ready to countenance any project from a 
trans-state canal to wild-cat banking, and so it was not difficult 
to get a law passed authorizing the regents to procure plans for a 
great university building, — plans which should become binding 
upon the state when approved by the governor and the superin- 
tendent of public instruction. As finally presented by the arch- 
itect the specifications called for the expenditure of half a million 
dollars. Mr. Pierce would not approve them, urging as his 
reason that it was not good sense to pay so much for a building 
that the academic work would be crippled. A university consisted 
not alone in buildings, but also in skilled teachers, libraries, and 
appliances. 



m i 



?TiXS 7 .w $ S 



T» all who fhall -<■ the* ,■• 



■ 



'loSfriioi. 



MR. PIERCE'S COMMISSION AS SUPERINTENDENT 
OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 87 

The stand taken by Mr. Pierce called down upon him a storm 
of denunciation, but he was unmoved, and his firm attitude 
defeated the scheme. After the lapse of almost seventy years, 
Ave now see how much wiser he was than his contemporaries. 

In connection with what he did for education at this time, 
one must not forget to mention his founding of The Journal of 
Education. The publication lasted only two years, 1838-1840, 
but in that time it circulated generally throughout the state in 
the interests of education, and was an able advocate of our com- 
mon and higher school systems. ! A more detailed account of the 
Journal appears in Chapter XIII. 



i Pierce— History of Calhoun County, Philadelphia, 1887, p. 32. 



MR. PIERCE'S EDUCATIONAL DOCTRINE 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE STATE 

A man's philosophy will determine the character of his educa- 
tional doctrine. The world may value him from the standpoint 
of his ability to organize and direct its affairs, but beneath the 
surface there are certain great principles which may never 
have been formulated into a regular system. Such a man 
would be regarded as a "doer of deeds," and his worth would be 
estimated accordingly. If the results of his labors be subjected 
to a close analysis, and each step be interpreted in terms of his 
public life and utterances, the whole may be again formulated 
into a definite theory of education. 

Education, as an abstract term, stands for that maturing pro- 
cess by which the individual child adjusts himself to the spiritual 
environment, which is the achievement of the race. Society 
creates an aim or ideal, and establishes schools for the realization 
of it. Its agents devise ways and means by which the will of the 
social whole becomes a reality. In this way, a school system 
originates. The educator or the philosopher may be called a 
leader, but in reality he is directed by the society, of which he is a 
member. 

It is hoped that an application of these simple principles will 
assist us in the task of formulating the educational theory and 
doctrine of John D. Pierce. The sources employed are: First, 
the results of his labors as embodied in our magnificent school 
system, organized under his master hand, and next his public 
utterances as recorded in his annual reports, printed addresses, 
and numerous unpublished manuscripts. 

We have seen something of the man himself and the circum- 
stances under which he was developed; we have examined the 
great body of ideas which influenced him, and we shall now 

88 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE STATE 89 

make the attempt to assemble his thoughts in a systematic way, 
and to formulate them into a related system and theory. 

Education is, primarily, for the individual himself, and, 
incidentally, for the perpetuation and glory of the state. Each 
is mutually dependent upon the other. The individual, there- 
fore, has a two -fold function and performs a double duty — a duty 
to himself and a duty to others, through society. 

As we look upon the beauties of nature and see the manifesta- 
tions of the wisdom of a wise Creator, everything is hopeful. 
"Whatever may have been the forbidding aspect of the past, and 
whatever may be the indications of the future, a noble destiny 
awaits the race. The earth is to be a delightsome land — a garden 
of paradise, filled with a ransomed, joyous people." Man's high 
destiny is certain, and the future is perfect. Man is, therefore, 
placed in a beautiful environment. His universe is under a per- 
fect and pre-established law, and everything moves with certainty 
and in perfect harmony. Stability, beauty and order characterize 
everything. Man has every faculty of soul, every susceptibility 
of mind, and every taste combined in his noble existence. All is 
nicely and delicately adjusted and adapted to the full enjoyment 
of the same endless round of harmonious grandeur and existence, 
and thus he stood forth in his original condition, fully matured, 
and the noblest product of the Creator's workmanship. But 
through sin he became incapable of the fullest enjoyment of 
Nature and Nature's God, and, though he lived with his fellow 
man in society, and seemingly is in perfect harmony with all 
creation, this cannot be truly real until he, in the exercise of his 
free will, accepts the ransom and follows the example of the Per- 
fect man; — "A man more noble and exalted shall reign in right- 
eousness. Behold the man, the perfection of beauty, — he shall 
repair the ruin, and in him all the kindreds of the earth be 
blessed." Mr. Pierce then proceeds to show that originally the 
Church was the institution ordained for the purpose of leading 
man into the perfect life, but, with the development of the state 
through the home, the creation of the school became one of the 
great institutions, to be used by the state to bring man back into 
harmony with the universe, and, by so doing, consummate a 



90 JOHN D. PIERCE 

double purpose— the perfection of the individual character, and 
through it, make secure the perpetuation of the state. The 
state, in caring for the individual, makes itself secure; the indi- 
vidual, in accepting this bounty, is insured freedom and hap- 
piness. This will afford a solution of the great world question — 
of the relation of the man to the institution — and, at the same 
time, recognize the equal importance of Church and State. The 
one, cultivating the feelings; and the other, exercising the 
powers of reason. Therefore, he says; "Let the school house 
and the church be planted, as they ever have been, in every vil- 
lage and hamlet throughout the length and breadth of our land, 
and no tyrant can ever arise that shall be strong enough to 
trample upon and tread down the rights of the people." 

This was the philosophy of education which actuated Mr. 
Pierce in the organization of the Michigan System. It will be 
necessary, however, to examine his conception of the state and 
the individual, and their mutual relationship, in greater detail, 
before we can form an adequate idea of his meaning of education, 
or understand the reasons for the means adopted in the realiza- 
tion of its aim. 

Nowhere in his writings does he clearly define the state. It 
is left to the reader to infer his meaning from what he says 
regarding the individual, and his rights and duties. He speaks 
of the obligations and prerogatives of the state, and the relations 
which exist between the individual and it. While the state 
appears supreme, it is always the citizen that makes it what it is. 
Our form of government assumes to be founded on those prin- 
ciples. Knowledge is an element essential to its existence and 
vigorous action; perpetuation of the government, and the sov- 
ereignty of the state depend upon the intelligence of the citizen, 
and education secures the state against the encroachment of 
power, removes superstition and ignorance, and makes the man 
free; therefore, education is an affair of the state. 

The distinction between noble and ignoble birth is a fiction of 
the imagination, because all men have one common Creator and 
are born free and equal. "The blood of the hard-handed laborer 
is just as royal as that of the king on the throne." Men are 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE STATE 91 

equal and free under the law, but they can only maintain this 
through the acquisition of knowledge. As the rich treasures of 
learning are not gained by [inheritance, and as there is no such 
thing as innate, inbred, hereditary knowledge, freedom and 
equality depend upon education; and, as the care of the whole 
depends upon the care for the individual, the glory and perpetua- 
tion of the state depends upon qualifying the individual to think 
for himself, to reason and judge correctly, and to pursue a just 
line of policy and conduct in all things pertaining to his own 
interests and public welfare. 

The individual, Mr. Pierce shows, has certain rights as an 
individual and certain others which he may claim as a citizen. 
These rights are either natural or acquired. The possession of 
rights involves the discharge of duty. These rights and duties 
are carried forward into the state because, as the state is com- 
posed of individuals, the individvals composing it must transfer 
certain of their natural rights to the state, and are, therefore, 
under obligation to perform certain duties imposed upon them by 
the majority. The state, on the contrary, having been created by 
man, and, having accepted or assumed these obligations, likewise 
acquires rights and duties which the individual is bound to 
respect, and which the state is equally as bound to observe. 

It is on this philosophy that Mr. Pierce bases his argument 
for free and universal education, The line of reasoning was not 
original with him. It has been employed by others, but it is of 
interest to us because he put the theory into practice. His con- 
tention is for the stability of the government and the perpetuation 
of the state. This stability depends upon the intelligence of the 
citizen, who has been made such by the state, while intelligent 
citizenship insures the greatest personal freedom. 

How the people are to know and to preserve to themselves the 
sacred rights which belong to the nature of man as a rational 
and responsible agent, is a question ot thrilling interest. These 
rights are individual, social, civil, political, and religious. Man's 
greatest right is the right to think for himself; but in order to be 
qualified to do this for the best good of himself and others, he 
must be made intelligent. He says: "Under a free government 



92 JOHN D. PIERCE 

like ours, the all important object to be gained is to qualify each 
individual to think for himself, to reason and judge correctly, 
and to pursue a just line of policy and conduct in all things per- 
taining to his own interests and public welfare." Education, 
therefore, is the only safeguard of public and private rights, and 
the future permanence and character of our institutions depend 
upon the degree of education in our citizen. The man can only 
become the citizen through education. "He may be born to vast 
estates, to untold riches and honor, and come into possession of 
titles, coronets, scepters, diadems and crowns, but no man was 
ever born a statesman, or a poet, or a philosopher, mechanic, or 
teacher ..... all was acquired by education, 
by the culture of the original faculties and susceptibilities of 
human nature, and by close application to study." 

Mr. Pierce saw a danger which threatened the state, and 
which he hoped to avert by universal education. He saw clearly 
the danger that would result from the concentration of wealth and 
power in the hands of the privileged few, and he saw equally as 
clear that the only remedy would be universal and free education. 
"All classes must be thoroughly educated in the principles of true 
wisdom and virtue, and be made fully acquainted with the great 
doctrines of individual, civil, and political rights." 

The various activities of life spring out of the many and 
varied relations which the individual maintains under the differ- 
ent institutions of civilization, — in the home, the state, or the 
church. He must learn and practice these duties, that he may 
enjoy his rights. There are duties which men owe to each other 
as rational and moral beings; duties which they owe to the state 
that sustains them, and duties which they owe to the government 
of the state that protects them. These duties grow out of the rela- 
tions which they bear to each other, to the state and to its gov- 
ernment, and the child can only become the man, fitted to assume 
and perform these functions, by education. He must live and 
mature in and by the institutions which he hopes to serve, protect 
and perpetuate, and which are bound to bestow upon him his just 
and equal rights. Therefore, the state must educate for the sake of 
the individual. 



THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE STATE 93 

The state, according to his views, is much more than an aggre- 
gate of individuals. He recognizes it as a spiritual creation, with 
supreme rights and duties. It must be protected, and is under 
obligation to protect; therefore, the state has the right to demand 
obedience to certain of its prerogatives. The most important of 
these, and the one which Mr. Pierce most often emphasized, is 
education. The object to be attained is the welfare of the indi- 
vidual and the security of the state. To secure this object the 
individual must be educated, and hence the state has the right to 
require it of all children and youth, and to impose upon all, to 
whom their management and care is committed, the duty of edu- 
cating them, and, if they cannot do it themselves, to send them 
to the public schools. "This," he says, "is the very letter and 
spirit of the Prussian law," and it was the essence of the argu- 
ment employed by him when he recommended and urged the 
school system which was adopted. 

In thus stating a need for education, he laid the foundation 
for a wise system. The individual stands ahead of the state, 
because the safety and security of the government depends upon 
the intelligence of the citizen. Mr. Pierce was exceedingly 
optimistic in all things. He saw, with a clear vision, the great 
possibilities of the State of Michigan, when her resources should 
be fully developed. He saw that the labor expended in the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, in the general improvement of the country, in the 
formation of her institutions, and the support of government 
would produce great results, and that, to maintain this supremacy 
and advance to new vantage ground, educated men were neces- 
sary. "We cannot do without them; without them we cannot 
advance or even hold our present position." Yet he was appre- 
hensive of danger, and saw a possible failure in the experiment 
of government. The people were not yet far enough removed 
from the great struggle for liberty to feel secure in it, 
and it was his desire to build on a foundation so solid that dis- 
aster could not overtake them. In the American colonies, the 
transfer of sovereignty from crown to people was a successful 
experiment because of the general diffusion of knowledge; 



94 JOHN D. FIRRCB 

therefore, he again and again expresses the thought that univer- 
sal education is necessary to perpetuate the institution. 

In his first annual Report, after showing that instruction 
should be co-extensive with universal suffrage, and that an 
unenlightened mind is never recognized by thegeuius of a repub- 
lican government, and that the will of the many is the supreme 
law of the land and is generally obeyed, he reposes perfect con- 
fidence in an enlightened public opinion, and believes that it is 
sufficient to cure all evils and avert every danger. The question 
is then raised: Can any plan be devised by which the principles 
of virtue and knowledge can be so diffused among the great 
body of the people as the existence and perpetuity of our insti- 
tutions seem to require? This question can be answered in one 
way only, viz., by a carefully planned system of free schools 
which ought, therefore, to be the property and care of the 
State. 

In his third report, in speaking of this subject, he says: 
"Our safety is not in constitutions and forms of government, for 
no constitution within the power of man to devise can provide 
such security, but in the establishment of a right system of gen- 
eral education, is the development and culture of these moral, 
and intellectual powers implanted in the nature of man. 
Would Michigan attain a high rank and an honorable distinction 
in this matchless confederacy of states, let perseverance be written 
upon the walls of her capitol, and let this be the watchword of the 
people, till every child in the state shall be thoroughly educated 
and fitted to fulfill his duty faithfully to his country aud his God." 

Having completed his work of organization, he still urges, in 
his fifth report, the necessity of education in the following 
words: "We must multiply our school houses, educate teachers, 
furnish books, procure libraries, and provide, indeed, all the 
necessary means of instruction for the whole population, or 
increase greatly the number of our jails, penitentaries and stand- 
ing armies." "We must educate, or forge bars, bolts and 
chains." 

Mr. Pierce's theory of the relation of the individual and the 
state is fundamental, and, as will be seen, affords the surest basis 



Thk individual and the state 95 

for a free and universal educational system. The importance of 
the man and citizens, and the sacredness of his individuality, are 
ever to be regarded. The state, however, is supreme, but depends 
for its safety on the character of the elements composing it. The 
child is born into the state and must grow up under its fostering 
care. For the first years of its life, the home, protected by the 
state, must undertake its education; later, the school, which is 
created by the state for a specific purpose, undertakes what the 
home cannot do. As the state depends upon the school for its 
prosperity, so the school depends upon the home for the proper 
discharge of its function; hence the duty of parents and heads of 
families to use their authority in restraining their children and to 
instruct them in everything which relates to their duty to their 
God, their fellow man, and to themselves. 

Education is necessary in order to bring man into a perfect 
harmony with his surroundings and the great universe, so that 
he may be of the greatest service to the government. Every 
human being has a right to a good education. The state is 
under obligation to furnish it, and property is liable for it; and, 
as a failure to do this imperils the state, its duty it is to see that 
every child within its boundaries is properly educated. 

Such are the principles that were in the mind of the founder 
of Michigan's school system when he adapted the old to the new. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MEANING AND AIM OF EDUCATION 

Superintendent Pierce's views upon the meaning and aim of 
education were broad and comprehensive. He did not write 
upon the subject of education in a scientific way, or for the sake 
of the subject itself, but he gave expression to his views in order 
that he might convince men of its meaning and value and thus 
induce them to adopt new ways and means adapted to the 
organization of a new system of education. He might not have 
been conscious that his was a system, as such, and it may not 
be even so regarded by educators, yet, by gathering up and 
articulating all the elements, one discovers certain great princi- 
ples which guided him in his work and which have served to 
direct his followers ever since. 

We have seen how by virtue of his theory of the state and 
the mutual relations between it and the individual, free and 
universal education was necessary. It is now pertinent to 
inquire what he meant by the term education and what was 
included in its aim and design. He firmly believed that in 
order to preserve the principle of civil and religious liberty, 
perpetuate free institutions, transmit to posterity a government 
based upon the rights of man and, finally, to rear a great citizen, 
the permanent foundations of knowledge and virtue must be made 
broad and deep. Therefore, "the design of education is to 
invigorate the constitution, polish the outward man, refine the 
taste, improve the moral faculties, strengthen the intellect, store 
the understanding, and develop all the powers of the mind. The 
end to be gained is to fit human beings for usefulness, to make 
them happy in themselves, while they are a blessing to their 
fellows, and to conduct them on through all the vivid scenes of 
time to a glorious termination of this earthly career, to a higher, 
purer and better life." 

96 



THE MEANING AND AIM OF EDUCATION 97 

The aim of education may rest on an ethical basis and may 
mean much or little; but when, as above, it is given an ethical, 
social and religious foundation, it must comprehend all of man's 
acts and include all of his relationships. A knowledge of all 
these relationships gives a meaning to education. Education, he 
says, is not for the sake of a man as an individual alone, but that 
he mav become an efficient and valuable member of society ; 
therefore, there must be included in the ethical idea that of the 
social aspect of man. It is curious and interesting to notice that 
much that is now said regarding the social aspects of education 
were fully anticipated by "Father" Pierce. 

He shows that education is the development of a human 
being, the maturing of a child into a man and a citizen. Such 
being the case, two presuppositions are necessary, a being, 
endowed with a free will capable of being developed, and the 
means or the agencies that he himself may use to effect this 
matured condition. It is education and study, and long-continued 
perseverance and application, and not wealth or power or birth 
that makes the man. Education, according to Mr. Pierce, means 
self effort. This is good old fashioned doctrine and means 
something more than mere development on the part of a 
teacher, or the awakening of an interest that is for the passing 
hour. How well the application of this theory to the schools of 
Michigan has succeeded in the last fifty years, is shown in the 
lives of the men that have been produced in these schools. 

"By means of the public schools, the poor boy of today, 
without the protection of father or mother, may be the man of 
learning and influence tomorrow; and he may accumulate and 
die the possessor of tens of thousands; he may even reach the 
highest station in the republic, and the treasures of his mind 
may be the richest legacy of the present to the coming genera- 
tions." 

These words, written seventy-five years ago when our State 
was an unbroken wilderness, and schools were unorganized, 
speak the ideal of the writer, who saw clearly the untold possi- 
bilities that would be afforded by an education which would 
unfold the hidden mysteries of creation, and enable him to arrive 



/ 



98 JOHN D. PUBRCE 

at the highest degree of physical, intellectual and moral attain- 
ment. This would make him an efficient human being, a true 
man and a citizen. He would possess then not mere intelli- 
gence, but the actual knowledge which is required in 
everj' department of government, legislation, and jurisprudence, 
and in the daily execution of laws, in business transactions, 
manufacturing, commerce, agriculture, internal improvements, 
architecture, gardening, finance, law, medicine, theology and 
teaching. This is his great aim in education, and it always implies 
manly independence in thinking. Mr. Pierce calls this true 
moral courage. It is in this way that man makes himself pro- 
ficient and bv so doing becomes efficient in society ; therefore, 
the more important design of education is to fit human beings 
to move in all the varied circumstances of life, with honor to 
themselves, and to be a blessing and not a curse to their fellow- 
men. "The object of education is to raise up, not to pull down; 
to improve the condition of man, to advance the interests of the 
whole people, while increasing the individual happiness and 
prosperity of every member of the commonwealth, and, if edu- 
cation will thus result in the perfection of government, it will also 
lead to the like perfection in science, in the arts and in every 
kind of improvement." 

Having now seen what led Mr. Pierce to the formulation of 
an educational aim, let us examine into the meaning which he 
attaches to the term education. 

Education is the entrance of a human being into an inheri- 
tance, and the accepting and using of his inheritance to fit him 
to transmit it to succeeding generations, not only unimpaired, 
but improved. He did not see, in the inheritance transmitted 
that of the whole race, but he did see that which had been 
derived from a high-minded, intelligent, educated, moral and 
religious ancestry. These men had lived and had formed institu- 
tions under trying circumstances. They lived as the whole 
world had lived, and gave to their children free institutions, 
equal laws, personal, civil and religious liberty, and the choicest 
form of government on earth. It is necessary, therefore, if the 
succeeding generations are to improve and perpetuate the same, 



THE MEANING AND AIM OF EDUCATION 99 

that they be brought into possession of this world experience by 
becoming a part of it. By means of education, therefore, human- 
ity, in coming into its inheritance, gains power and efficiency 
and the state as an institution is saved from disaster an J ruin. 

More recent writers upon education have spoken of man's 
inheritance and its relation to his education in a more concrete 
way, perhaps, but nowhere do we find one who has incorporated 
the idea into a philosophy, or made it the basis of his educational 
theory in a more practical way than did Mr. Pierce. 

Education is a developing, maturing process. Man with an 
inherited organism is born into a natural and social environment; 
he is developed in and by this environment upon which he reacts. 
In one place he says: "To educate is to draw out, unfold, 
develop, enlarge, and strengthen all the powers, faculties and 
susceptibilities of human nature. Education is the great busi- 
ness of human existence." This leaves us in doubt as to the 
way in which the process of development will be originated, or 
carried forward. Is to be from within or from without? Is a 
child to be educated by giving him a knowledge of the world and 
of things, or does he become developed through his own self 
exertion? In answering these questions, he says, first, that to 
be successful in teaching, the laws by which the mind is governed 
in the acquisition of knowledge must be known, and because in 
infancy the body and mind are plastic, it is the design of educa- 
tion to take this feeble and helpless being, strengthen all his 
powers, and nurture him into vigorous manhood. This is to be 
done by the communication and reception of knowledge. When 
he speaks of the "design of education," the term education is 
spoken of as a concrete rather than an abstract term, and he 
doubtless has in mind tha organized agencies of education — the 
home and the school. The teacher communicates knowledge and 
the child receives it, and by so doing develops or matures. The 
character of this development and the results, as they are shown 
or expressed in life, will largely depend upon the kind of knowl- 
edge communicated, and the manner in which it is brought to 
the child. 

Education is, therefore, a subject of immense magnitude and 

LefG. 



100 JOHN D. PIERCK 

comprises more than is generally supposed. All that a civilized 
man is when he grows to maturity, more than he is at birth is 
the result of education in the widest sense of the term. As 
progress is the great law of human existence, and, as education 
commences with the first dawn of being and is not complete 
until there is nothing more for man to learn, the most important 
meaning to attach to the term education is that it is a process of 
adjustment through development. 

A child is educated by acquiring knowledge. This may mean 
that in the acquiring of knowledge he becomes educated, or that 
the acquiring of knowledge is the end sought. More than once 
does Mr. Pierce tell us of his belief in the harmony and unity of 
the universe and of the reign of a universal law; and so, when 
he speaks of all the principles of knowledge as parts of 
one great and glorious whole, we are reminded of the modern 
conception of "education as world building," and come to the 
conclusion that it was his thought that knowledge itself is not 
the end of education. He speaks of the boundaries of human 
knowledge and the limits beyond which it is useless for man in 
his present state to attempt to go. And when he tells us that 
"when all is known of matter in all its forms, modifications, 
motions, powers, laws, relations, and dependencies that can be 
learned; when the universe of mind is fully surveyed and all is 
known of its mighty energies, susceptibilities, high emotions, 
connections, duties and destinies that can be learned, — then a 
man's education is finished," we can draw but one inference 
regarding the value of knowledge, — that "the great object gained 
is a well balanced mind." That man is the best educated who 
has acquired a knowledge of the existence of things and who has 
become acquainted with their most intimate and important rela- 
tions, if his physical, intellectual, and moral faculties are 
developed in just and equal proportions. 

The foregoing is sufficient to show that Mr. Pierce entertained 
definite views upon the value of religious instruction, for in his day 
schools were distinctly religious in their character, and it was 
not necessary to say anything in favor of religious teaching in 



THE MEANING AND AIM OF EDUCATION 101 

them. His entire theory of education presupposes this. It is true 
that he believed that the state university should be undenomina- 
tional in its teachings; it could be none other than this and be 
supported by a state composed of individuals of all denominations, 
but this did not mean that the separation of church and state 
should result in the taking of all religious teaching away from 
the common schools. His religious standards were high, and the 
demands for citizens of the highest and best character, led him to 
the common school to furnish this. He would teach religion by 
having the teacher teach religiously. 

Instruction is the means by which a human being becomes 
educated. Mr. Pierce is clear in his statements upon this point. 
He speaks of education as a means or process that makes a man 
and, at the same time, "makes the state and exalts it to empire." 
And as superior knowledge gives a power of mind over matter, 
education is an all important end to be pursued through life. 
But instruction is the presentation of facts, the communication 
of light and knowledge and is, therefore, only a means to an 
eud. The following quotation makes his meaning clear; "The 
primary signification of the word educate is to draw out, while 
the original meaning of instruct is to pour in ; to educate is to 
unfold, to develop all the powers of the nature of man, while to 
instruct is to communicate facts. Education is the end, and 
instruction the means of accomplishing that end;" and finally, 
in his address, delivered at the dedication of the State Normal 
School, at Ypsilanti, his definition of education seems to be the 
summary of his life thought and experience. He says: "Edu- 
cation comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline 
which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the 
temper and form the manners of youth and fit them for usefulness 
in their future stations of life." 

Having given education a meaning and fixed its aim, he next 
seeks for a realization and accomplishment of all this. How can 
the ideal of education be realized? How can the aim which has 
been set up become actual in the life of the man and the citizen? 
This is first answered by viewing education as a science and an 



102 JOHN D. PIERCE 

art and, then, by providing the agencies whose function shall be 
to execute the principles and realize them as an art. 

Education is to be regarded both as a science and as an art. 
It is a science because it has its distinct subject, its distinct 
object and is governed by its own peculiar laws. It is the object 
of the science of education, while it communicates in a given 
time the greatest amount of knowledge, to render mind the fittest 
instrument for discovering, applying and obeying the laws of the 
universe in which the man is placed. If education is a science, 
it can only be understood by study. But, like other sciences, it 
has its corresponding art, — the art of teaching, and hence results 
the profession of the teacher. If teaching then be an art, it can 
only be successfully practiced by one who has had suitable pre- 
paration for his work. 

A summary of Mr. Pierce's views upon the meaning and aim 
of education may be stated as follows: 

Expressing the aim in ethical terms, it should include every- 
thing that is social and religious. The state should aim, by 
means of education, to procure efficient and intelligent citizens; 
while the home and the church, exercising their perogatives, 
should aim to produce strong, religious characters. This can 
be done only by organized means, hence the institutions con- 
cerned should aim to provide the best possible agencies by which 
these ends may be secured. 

Education has been shown to be a maturing procsss, — the 
development of a human soul. Coordinate with this process and 
not as a result of it, the child, in becoming an educated man, 
enters into possession of his ancestral inheritance of institutional 
life. By virtue of his acquired efficiency, he transmits it to the 
future. In becoming educated, the child gains knowledge and power. 
Education is both a science and an art, and, as instruction is the 
means by which it is acquired, the highest and best understand- 
ing of this science and art is necessary for the training of those 
who are to carry on this great work of life. 




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CHAPTER XI. 

EDUCATIONAL METHOD 

Mr. Pierce was a practical teacher, as well as an organizer 
and writer upon education. He not only entertained clear con- 
victions on all the educational questions of the day, and was able 
to sustain them by means of a sound philosophy, but he had had 
opportunity, in his younger days, to engage in the actual work of 
teaching. 1 

In one of his addresses, he gives us a description of his prac- 
tical work. "I have," he said, "one word to say to such as mean 
to be teachers; it is a laborious employment. I seldom sat down 
from the time I entered the school room until I left it, besides 
teaching five evenings in the week. And I may be allowed to 
add that, though I have had one hundred pupils for the day 
and forty on my list for the evening, I never had occasion, 
except in one or two cases, to inflict corporal punishment; and 
yet we had order and stillness in school. I have, in times gone 
by, given instruction in all branches, and have made philosoph- 
ical and chemical experiments, and have even carried into the 
school room the dissecting knife and showed to the young mind 
the peculiar structure of the eye, and the formation of the ear, 
and other things pertaining to the animal economy." 

We can see in this account something of the man as a teacher, 
and it will not be difficult to perceive that in his methods he was 
far in advance of those employed in the school of his day. This 
method was not empirical, but was rational and was derived 
from fixed principles. Fortunately, he has left much that will 
serve us in our attempts to formulate these principles. We shall 
proceed to an examination of the foundation of his method, then 
to what he has to say about it, and, lastly, inquire into the ways 
and means to be used, in the actual application of the method to 
teaching. 

1 See page 60. 

103 



104 JOHN D. PIERCE 

He was a psychologist of the old school. He understood the 
mind and the laws of its development and, in more than one 
instance, convinces the reader that he had come in iouch with 
the newer psychology. He never refers to the doctrine of inter- 
est as such, makes no reference to apperception and does not 
plead for correlation. He lived before their time and yet he 
betrays the fact that, had he lived at the present, he would have 
given these notions a place in his system. He speaks of the 
importance of each person possessing a knowledge of himself, 
discusses the relation between matter and mind, and sIioavs how 
each of these is affected by this relation. If the brain is the 
chief instrument of mind in all its operations, then whatever 
may affect the brain must necessarily affect the mind; hence, on 
account of the complex nature of man, it is of the highest degree 
important and essential that we have a correct knowledge of 
the intellectual, moral and religious nature. Such a knowledge 
can be secured in only one way; by self study, by turning our 
thoughts back upon ourselves for the purpose of observing these 
varied operations of the mind. This knowledge is essential and 
important to the teacher because his first work is to study the 
child and understand his nature, in order to develop his mind 
and, in the end, perfect his character. 

Mr. Pierce tells us that one of the original, innate elements of 
the human mind is a desire for knowledge. It is not easy to 
understand his meaning. By taking into consideration all that 
he has said regarding the mind, we are led to think that he 
means that, as the child is brought into relationship 
with the things of his environment, and is led to interpret them 
in terms of what is already in his experience, his interest is aroused 
and as a result, he is induced to greater effort. This is a state- 
ment of the subjective condition of which the following is the 
objective: he says, that this desire is easily developed in child- 
ren; they uniformly love to learn, and the more they study the 
more they wish to study, and the more they read the more they 
wish to read, provided the books, put within their reach, are 
what they should be, plain and easy to be understood and filled 
with useful and interesting matter. 



EDUCATIONAL METHOD 105 

His catalogue of the mental powers is interesting. "The 
rational nature is obviously three-fold, intellectual, moral and 
religious. The chief intellectual powers are perception, memory, 
reason, association of ideas, imagination and fancy; the moral 
powers are ability to distinguish between right and wrong, to 
will, to choose and refuse; while the affections, emotions and 
passions form the heart and constitute our religious being." He 
was an intellectualist and believes that the moral and religious 
nature are consequent to and grow out of the intellect. 

He speaks of the mind perceiving the existence of objects and 
the relations by which they are connected. The mind then 
remembers and feels, combines and infers conclusions, and then 
acts or wills. This, he says, all takes place as a development 
and follows the course of nature, but it is necessary to know 
what this course of nature is; therefore, study nature. One 
might feel that he were reading Comenius when he comes to the 
following: "Nature begins at the lowest point, with the simplest 
things, and leads onward and upward, step by step." 

He had made a close observation of the process of learning 
and speaks of it with a definiteness that does not leave one in 
doubt as to his meaning. He had observed that children learn 
the first principles of things and the elements of language with 
astonishing rapidity and ease, and that the abstract sciences 
require a fuller development of the intellectual faculties, but in 
no place does he intimate a knowledge of the method to be 
employed in bringing about abstract thinking. He is satisfied 
with the mere observation, that the mind passes slowly from 
infancy, through childhood and youth, to mature age. The fol- 
lowing quotation shows us what he understood by the learning 
process: "The process by which the child learns in the home is 
as follows: an object is presented, it is viewed perhaps as children 
are wont to do, examined more closely, the name of it is repeated 
and he associates with the object the name of it; whenever after- 
ward the object is presented he calls it by name. The child has 
thus learned the sign of an idea, but, before learning it, he had 
acquired a knowledge of the thing signified by that sign." It 
is implied in what has been said that he would have the child do 



106 JOHN D. PIERCE 

those things that will interest him. Children, he says, are 
interested in study and their school work, but, because of an 
incomprehensible book or a poor teacher, this interest is soon 
lost and the teaching is a failure. 

Mr. Pierce does not give us anywhere any statement that 
makes clear what he means by method. Had he been writing 
upon the subject of education as such, he might have done this; 
but he looked forward to an organized school system and there- 
fore devoted his thought and attention more to the means to be 
employed in teaching than to a fixed method. He believed in 
the efficiency of new and better methods of instruction, which 
should be based upon the simplest principles of human nature. 
He says, "If the child is properly instructed, he will be taught 
thoroughly, and then the knowledge which he requires will be 
permanent and it will be communicated in the shortest time, 
which is an object of great moment." The nearest approach to a 
statement of method is in the following: "The faculties of our 
constitution are all invigorated by that exercise which is required 
in the acquisition of knowledge, but each must be duly exer- 
cised." Therefore, the great object of teaching, he argues, 
should be to impart, in a given period, the greatest amount of 
knowledge and the greatest degree of strength to each one of 
the original faculties. He would throw the teacher upon his 
own genius in devising his own special method, by throwing him 
back upon the days of his childhood and youth, and calling up 
a vivid recollection of his own history in the acquisition of 
knowledge. 

Mr. Pierce saw very clearly that no matter how perfect the 
organization, or how well the detailed plans may have been 
prearranged, success could not come to any system of schools 
unless the proper methods were employed and the right agencies 
used for carrying it forward. 

Acting, therefore, upon suggestions gained from his study of 
the Prussian system, he spoke in his report quite at length upon 
the necessity of trained teachers, the value of a proper course of 
study, books and libraries, school-houses and the necessary 
appliances. The suggestions he offered showed his wisdom and 



EDUCATIONAL METHOD 107 

foresight, and proved exceedingly helpful to the people in organ- 
izing their schools, and eventually became the origin of rnuch 
that is valuable at the present. 

He felt keenly that, no matter how perfect the organization of 
a system of schools in all of its varied departments might be, it 
must fail in securing the desired results without a sufficient 
number of competent teachers, and that it would be utterly 
impossible to elevate the schools and make them what they 
ought to be, to meet the just demands of all classes of the com- 
munity, without elevating the character and rank of the teachers. 
He expresses his idea of the teacher in the following words: 
"There are chords in every human soul, and strings in every 
human heart, that may be touched and vibrate as they are 
touched, and it is the business of the teacher to do it. A perfect 
school system must have a living soul. The teacher is its life 
and vital energy, its pervading, innovating spirit." 

Such was the ideal, but how was it possible to realize it? We 
have seen a picture of the school in the pioneer day and the 
incompetence of the teacher. Mr. Pierce saw this more clearly 
than anyone else, and, in his practical way, would attempt to 
remedy the evil by affording a means, first to educate and then to 
train teachers. The training of teachers was not an original idea 
with him. Europe had long before this opened normal schools. 
M. Cousin explained fully the Prussian plan of such schools, and 
the idea was fast gaining ground in the New England States. * 
It was not possible to provide such a school in the new state of 
Michigan, so Mr. Pierce did the only thing he could do under 
the circumstances. In his second annual report, he discloses his 
plan: "It would seem to be indispensably necessary, if the 
securing of competent teachers can be brought about in no other 
way, to appropriate a small percentage of the income of the 
school fund for the support of the department of teachers, to be 
established in the several branches of the university. The sole 
object of these branches is the ultimate supply of the district 

1 It is an interesting fact that the principal of the first normal school in 
Massachusetts established at Lexington in 1839, Rev. Cyrus Pierce, was a 
relative of John D. Pierce, 



108 JOHN D. PIERCE 

schools with competent teachers." This was the beginning of 
the normal school idea in Michigan. In the address which he 
gave at the opening of the first normal school at Ypsilanti, he 
said: "The object of this school is to qualify teachers for the 
great and important work of rearing up and training, in the first 
rudiments of knowledge, the children and youth of our state, and 
incidentally to this main design, to provide such, as may desire, 
the means of reaching a grade of education that may be obtained 
in the primary schools. It was earnestly desired by me, when 
the foundation of our school system was laid, that such an insti- 
tution might be established. It has ever been my deliberate 
judgment that it was essential to perfect the system and ensure 
success. It is needed to occupy ground between the primary 
schools and the university." 

Having shown the desirability of the trained and thorougly 
equipped teacher, he called attention next to the fact that the 
teacher must receive adequate compensation for the service 
rendered. While he would place the minimum salary at thirty 
dollars for men and fifteen dollars per month for women, we 
must remember that these figures at that time were relatively far 
above the average salary of the present. He argues that it would 
be unavailing to provide for the education of teachers unless the 
appreciation of this efficiency is expressed by a liberal compen- 
sation. "The difference between high and low wages," he wrote, 
"depends upon education, because the educated man has more 
intelligence and skill to combine with his labor than the ignor- 
ant, unlettered man." He believed that the minimum salary 
should be so fixed, that below this no teacher should be entitled 
to receive aid from the public fund, and that every teacher should 
have been through a regular course of training and have received, 
from the academic board, a diploma setting forth his qualifica- 
tions as a teacher; and finally that the provisions of the law 
should be such that no township should be entitled to any por- 
tion of the income, from the public fund, which did not employ 
such qualified teachers. 

A course of study is next in importance to the teacher, and Mr 
Pierce made some very interesting and valuable suggestions 



EDUCATIONAL METHOD 109 

upon the various subjects to be included in the curriculum. The 
elements of an education were, of course, reading, writing and 
arithmetic, and a good education he said might be acquired with 
these. He mentions, however, many other subjects such as 
physiology, psychology, civics, geography, grammar, history, 
surveying, engineering, botany, chemistry and geology. In all 
of his statements regarding the subjects to be taught, emphasis 
is placed upon the practical value of them. A study possesses 
value in proportion as it will give a man a broader view of life. 
The following excerpts from his writings, regarding the differ- 
ent subjects, will prove interesting reading and will fully illus- 
trate his opinions. 

READING 

"A reading book is for improvement in the art of reading and 
hence should contain some variety of composition. Every piece 
should contain something entertaining and useful and be written 
in plain, simple and elegant language — in such language as 
children use, in language easy to understand. The reason why 
children read large portions of the Bible with interest, is because 
they understand the langauge." 

SPELLING 

"The object of a spelling book is not definition of words, but, 
as the designation imports, it is chiefly to teach correct orthog- 
raphy; and it should be specially adapted to this purpose." 

"The principles of classification adopted by Webster have done 
more to promote uniformity of pronunciation among our people 
than all other causes combined." 

"Children do not learn the meaning of words from books. 
This is done in the house and in the open field— in converse 
with nature." 

ARITHMETIC 

"The practice has been to require the youthful mind to com- 
mit to memory certain rules and thus to solve questions mechan- 
ically. On the other hand, when questions are solved by the 
process of reasoning, the mind is satisfied, it has the evidence 



110 JOHN D. PIERCE 

within itself that the solutionis correct; and thus a rule is dis- 
covered that can never be forgotten." 

"A child, old enough to know what addition is and how to 
perform the process, is just as capable of understanding the 
reason why one is carried for every ten, as any teacher." 

LANGUAGE. 

"In some schools Latin has been taught. I have taught it in a 
common school, I would not adopt any provision by which any 
knowledge would be excluded. I would make it imperative that 
the English language should be taught." 

HISTORY AND CIVICS 

"The history of our country is implied in a good education." 
"Our young men in all conditions of life, should be taught 
the great principles of the constitution and laws of the State, and 
of the United States. No man can do his duty while ignorant of 
them." 

GEOGRAPHY 

"Education implies a knowledge of our country, its political 
and natural divisions, geological formation, its resources, soils, 
and commerce." 

NATURE STUDY 

"Children are fond of making experiments. The philosopher 
is allowed to make his, so should the child. More experiments 
should be introduced into our schools." 

"No education can be regarded as complete without a knowl- 
edge of agriculture. Agriculture is most peculiarily adapted to 
give to a people that individuality of character which is essential 
to sustain republican institutions." 

PHYSIOLOGY 

"Children must be early informed of their bodily constitution. 
A man who knows what his physical condition is, and requires, 
will not be likely to be either a glutton or a drunkard, but tem- 
perate in all things." 



EDUCATIONAL METHOD 111 

Mr. Pierce believed the teacher to be superior to the book, 
and that the one who had been most thoroughly trained could do 
vastly more with the most ordinary book than the incompetent 
teacher could do with the best books ever written. He believed 
in good books, however, and felt that those in use were 
mere compilations gotten up for speculation, written by those 
in no way qualified to write for children. "Authors should 
throw themselves back to days of childhood and call to mind 
how children think, feel, and reason. The language should 
be pure and simple." 

In his fifth annual report, Mr. Pierce published a list of the 
text-books then in use in the state. It will prove of interest to 
the reader to examine this list, and to notice the relative popu- 
larity of the different books, as indicated by the number of 
districts in which they were used. 

Webster's elementary spelling book 548 

Cobb's elementary spelling book 62 

Town's elementary spelling book 14 

Emerson's elementary spelling book 2 

Olney's geography 315 

Parley's geography 78 

Woodbridge's geography 47 

Smith's geography 89 

Huntington's geography 17 

Daboll's arithmetic 304 

Cobb's arithmetic 3 

Adams' arithmetic 103 

Smith's arithmetic 119 

Davis' arithmetic 15 

Osirander's arithmetic 31 

Pike's arithmetic 5 

Colburn's arithmetic 21 

Kirkham's grammar 266 

Murray's grammar 27 

Smith's grammar 65 

Brown's grammar.. 23 

Greenleaf's grammar 6 



112 JOHN D. PIERCE 

Hale's history of the United States 145 

Juvenile reader ._ 49 

National reader 7 

English reader 371 

Historical reader 20 

Young reader 4 

Porter's reader 4 

Testament — used as reader 116 

Webster's dictionary 13 

Walker's dictionary 11 

Mr. Pierce said that when the necessities of education are th e 
greatest, then the difficulties are the greatest and the means the 
least. In his first report, he not only submitted the plan of a 
school house, but made some suggestions in regard to the con- 
struction of one. In the first place, he would have the entire 
premises, with all the appendages, the construction of the house 
and its internal arrangements, the picture of order, of neatness 
and comfort. The windows should be high, so as to prevent out- 
door occurrences from attracting attention, also for the purpose 
of ventilation. The floor should be level. The temperature of 
the room should be kept at 60°, and there should be 21 cu. ft. of 
air to each pupil. He recommended farther that the seats should 
be so constructed as to conform to the natural curve of the back 
of the child. 

At the close of his term of office, he wrote as follows regarding 
school houses: 

"Large sums have been raised for the erection of school 
houses. True, many of them are built of logs, and might be 
taken by some unreflecting passerby from some of our large and 
wealthy cities, as evidence that little or no interest is felt in 
schools; but it is to be remembered that the buildings, though 
rude they may be, are as good as the circumstances of a people 
in their infancy will allow — good, indeed, as their own dwellings." 

We have now traced the philosophical theory of the state and 
its relation to the individual; and have seen how it gives a mean- 
ing to education and fixes its aim. We have seen how the 
method and the means for its accomplishment grew out of all 



EDUCATIONAL METHOD 113 

this, and how Mr. Pierce adapted these ideals to the pioneer con- 
ditions incident to the organization of a new state. We shall next 
see how he actually organized Michigan's school system. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ORGANIZED EDUCATION. 

Mr. Pierce entered upon the work of organizing the school 
system of Michigan, which had fortunately been assigned to him 
by theGoverner of the State, with a rare intelligence. For nearly 
five years he labored with untiring zeal and vigor. 

Prof. McLaughlin says of him: — J 

"He combined rare philosophical grasp with genuine practical 
sagacity, and at once began the duties of a new office in a way 
that inspired confidence and had immediate effect," 

He was well prepared to undertake this work, having been 
trained and educated in the East, and having, in the exercise of 
the ministerial function, had the greatest opportunity and leisure 
for the study of the great educational questions of the day. He 
had read extensively, and had been a keen student of men and 
affairs. As a man, he had the courage of his convictions. He 
possessed excellent executive ability, and, having clearly per- 
ceived the conditions and needs of the new state, he brought all 
of his powers to bear upon the means at his command to produce 
enduring and practical results. No sooner had he received his 
commission as Superintendent of Public Instruction, than an act 
was passed by the legislature instructing him to prepare and sub- 
mit apian for the organization and support of primary schools; a 
plan for a university and its branches; also, a plan for the dis- 
position of the university and primary school lands. He says, 
regarding this act: — 

"This was the first work assigned me to do, and I had five 
months before me in which to do it. The field was clear; there 
were no old institutions and deep-rooted prejudices to be 
encountered and removed." 

1 Organization of the State University. Circular of Information, No 4, p. 35. 
Bureau of Education. 

114 



ORGANIZED EDUCATION 115 

In order to fully prepare himself to execute this commission 
and to discharge the duties of his office in an acceptable and 
satisfactory manner, he made a visit to Massachusetts and the 
eastern states, as has been shown above. 1 The object of this visit 
was to make a careful study of educational questions, and to seek 
information in regard to the organization, management and sup- 
port of schools from the primary grades to the university. 

He was absent two months. Upon his return, he formulated 
a report in which he discussed, in a clear and forcible manner, all 
of the questions involved, and submitted to the legislature a 
detailed plan which, with few exceptions and minor modifications, 
was adopted and embodied in the laws of the state. 

In order to form an adequate idea of what he proposed regard- 
ing the organization of the common schools, it will be necessary 
to examine Mr. Pierce's first report somewhat in detail In the 
preceding chapters reference was made to this and his subsequent 
reports, as furnishing the material for the construction 
of his educational views into a rational unit. As these reports are 
inaccessible to the general reader, there being only a limited 
number of copies in existence, it is proposed to quote quite 
extensively. This is done in order that the reader may have a 
statement of Mr. Pierce's views, and be left free to compare the 
same with the actual organization of the schools as they are now. 

Two important and fundamental educational problems present- 
ed themselves to Mr. Pierce for solution. 1) The proper distri- 
bution of the school funds; and 2) How to secure an organized 
body of officers to administer the affairs of the school. 

The success or failure of the entire system would necessarily 
depend upon the disposition which should be made of these ques- 
tions. It was seen to be necessary and important that the dis- 
tribution of the income arising from the sale or leasing of pub- 
lic lands should be based on broad principles which would have a 
strong tendency "to stimulate to exertion and secure the co- 
operation of the greatest numbers in promoting the cause of edu- 
cation." Mr. Pierce was of the opinion that the distribution of 
this income, in its proper place, could be so made from year to 

1 See page 82. 



-\ 



116 john d. pierce; 

year, that the ends sought would be gained. Accordingly, it was 
proposed that all districts, failing to comply with the law, 
should be deprived of their share of the income. 

The success of this proposed plan would not be assured, how- 
ever, without an efficient school board, to be elected by the people. 
Upon the wisdom, fidelity, and zeal of the board, the success of 
the whole system would, in a great measure, depend. The school 
board must be given legislative and executive powers, and the 
men composing it must be regarded as trustees of the people, 
deputed to fulfill certain important trusts. Mr. Pierce wrote as 
follows regarding this: — 

"There must be simplicity, combined with activity and 
energy. Let the agents be few; let their duties be clearly 
defined, and let them, as in the Prussian system, be paid for their 
services. The time of every man is his property, and cannot, 
either justly or constitutionally, be taken and given to the public 
without remuneration." 

Mr. Pierce accordingly submitted to the legislature a plan in 
harmony with the above-named principles, and which was sub- 
stantially as follows: — 

The unit of the system shall be the school district. It must 
be invested with certain well defined corporation powers, and 
must be held responsible for the performance of certain well 
defined duties. The district must make provision for the erec- 
tion of all buildings, and must provide the necessary school 
appliances. For this, as well as for library purposes, it may 
levy a tax. Suitable officers, whose duties must be defined by 
law, must be elected; only properly qualified teachers are to be 
employed, and a school must be maintained at least three months 
in the year. The officers composing the district board were 
called the moderator, director and assessor, and the duties 
imposed on them, severally and collectively, were but little 
different from those printed in the present school law. 

There seems to be little doubt that Mr. Pierce was influ- 
enced by the Report of the Prussian System in the choice of the 
school district as the unit of his system. It corresponds to the 
parish mentioned in the report, but with this difference, that 



ORGANIZED EDUCATION 117 

much more power was placed in the hands of the people under 
the Michigan system than was delegated to them under the Prus- 
sian law. The Prussian school system was highly centralized. It 
was Mr. Pierce's idea that, while the schools were always to be 
kept, as an organized unitary system, under the control of a cen- 
tral authority, much power should be retained and exercised by 
the people, and the will of the majority in the unit should always 
prevail, so long as the will did not conflict with the will of the 
great majority. 

The next division of the system, regarded from the stand- 
point of importance and size, was the township, which was, like 
the district, a corporate body with specific functions, and 
endowed with rights and charged with duties. It will be recalled 
that at one time previous to this, the township, as in the east, had 
been the unit of the system. The township was enjoined to raise 
an amount of money equal to the amount received from the 
school fund. It was required that a board of school inspectors 
be chosen by the people. It was the duty of this board to attend 
to the formation of new districts, inspect the schools and teach- 
ers, apportion the money received from the income of the school 
fund, among several districts, and to make annual reports to the 
superintendent of public instruction. The points of similarity 
between the township and the circle of the Prussian system, while 
they may be incidental, are quite plainly observable. 

Mr. Pierce believed in the value of the public library, and felt 
that it should be so arranged as to be easy of access to the great- 
est number of people. Accordingly, he recommended that 
provision be made for a library in every school district, aud this 
plan was incorporated in the school law. The success and 
extension of school librararies in Michigan in recent years is the 
most fitting testimonial of the value of this suggestion, and is the 
best realization of the ideals of the founder and organizer of our 
school system. Quoting from his third report, he says: — 

"To accomplish the greatest degree of good in our state, dis- 
trict libraries must be established; not only that the useful infor- 
mation contained in well selected books may be generally con - 



118 JOHN D. FIERCE 

veyed, but that the teachers may have the benefit of acquiring 
the most extended knowledge." 

But unless some attention were given to the material organiza- 
tion of a school, any theory would prove unavailing aud futile. 
Michigan had but few school buildings in 1837, and these were 
poor ones. The superintendent, recognizing the importance of 
the immediate construction of good and comfortable ones, called 
attention to this important subject. The following was quoted 
from the report of the Prussian schools; Cousin said: "The 
ministry has shown the most praiseworthy perseverance in 
planning school houses. I have now under my eye a general 
order addressed to all the regencies, containing a detailed descrip- 
tion of the best and most economical manner of building school 
houses. Their construction must not be left to experience or to 
an injudicious economy." 

Acting upon these ideas, Mr. Pierce submitted a very carefully 
drawn ground plan of a model school house, together with the 
suggestions and directions which have been discussed in detail in 
a previous chapter. It is curious to note that nearly all of the 
older rural school houses in the state are constructed after this 
plan and in accordance with his wise suggestions. 

It will be recalled that in the Catholepistemiad, according to 
the territorial act of 1821, a provision was made for the establish- 
ment of colleges, schools, and academies, by the board of trus- 
tees. .Evidently Mr. Pierce was strongly impressed with this idea 
because he saw in the academy, as a branch of the university, not 
only a provision for secondary education and a preparatory 
school for the higher education, but an opportunity afforded 
for the education and training of teachers for the pri- 
mary school. Accordingly, he recommended that these 
branches should have three departments: one for the higher 
branches of English education, which was designed to furnish a 
large class of persons with an opportunity for pursuing some 
branches of education in advance of that which could be done in 
the primary schools; one designed for classical education, 
designed for those who wished to fit themselves to enter the uni- 
versity; and one intended to prepare teachers for the elementary 



ORGANIZED EDUCATION 119 

schools. The last named department should have a course of 
instruction covering three years, and was to be open to all without 
charge, the sole condition being a promise to teach in the schools 
of the state for at least three years after graduation. 

Any county was entitled to an academy by complying with the 
following conditions: — 

The board of supervisors must secure an eligible site and 
cause the erection of suitable buildings, subject to the approval 
of the superintendent of public instruction. There was to be a 
board of trustees, consisting of seven persons, six of whom were 
to be appointed by the board of supervisors, and one by the 
superintendent of public instruction. The entire management of 
the academy was to be placed in the hands of this board, which 
was to appoint all professors and teachers, and was required to 
make a report each year to the board of visitors The board of 
visitors was a sort of supervising body, consisting of three mem- 
bers, one of which was to be appointed by the board of supervis- 
ors, and two by the superintendent of public instruction. The 
duties of this board consisted in visiting the academy at its 
annual examination, inquiring into its condition, examining the 
proceedings of the board of trustees, and finally in making a 
report and forwarding it, together with the report of the board of 
trustees, to the superintendent of public instruction. 

The board of supervisors was to secure from the county, for 
the support of the academy, a sum equal to that apportioned to 
it from the income of the university fund. 

Mr. Pierce was, without doubt, largely influenced by the 
Prussian system in the formation of his plan for the academy. 
The academy was a combination of the Prussian gymnasium and 
the normal school, while the method and means for their man- 
agement and supervision, especially regarding the close relation- 
ship borne to the central officer of the system, the superinten- 
dent, was a close copy of the Prussian system. There can be no 
doubt but that this proposed plan of the academy has finally 
evolved into the high school, normal school, and county normal. 

Mr. Pierce's recommendations regarding the organization 
and maintenance of the university, and his many public utter- 



120 JOHN D. PIERCE 

ances regarding its value and prospective greatness, all furnish 
abundant evidence that his interest in this institution was great. 
It was his desire to make such a provision for a system of educa- 
tion in the new state that it should be broad, comprehensive, and 
of a permanent character. His plan was difficult of realiza- 
tion at the time of its proposal, yet the suggestions were so 
practical and valuable, and so far in advance of the conditions of 
the day, that we are only beginning to see their realization. 

The following quotation from his first report will show his 
proposed plan for the organization of the university. He 
wrote: — 

"In the organization of the university, it will be proper and 
necessary to create a board of Regents to superintend and manage 
its general concerns. The powers to be vested in this board and 
its duties may and ought to be prescribed by law. The board of 
Regents shall consist of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the 
Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, Chan- 
cellor of the State, and Chancellor of the Univarsity, who shall 
be ex officio members, and twelve others to be appointed by the 
legislature. The Secretary of the State shall be ex officio Sec- 
retary of the board. The Board of Regents shall have the power, 
and it shall be their duty to enact laws for the government of the 
university, to confer degrees, to appoint a Chancellor and all 
professors and tutors, and to make a report annually to the 
Board of Visitors." There were to be three departments in the 
institution: 

1. The department of science, literature and arts. 

2. The department of law; and 

3. The department of medicine. 

It was further provided that the Board of Visitors, above 
referred to, should consist of five members, and should be 
appointed by the superintendent of public instruction. The 
Board of Regents was required by law to make regular reports to 
this board, and they exercised supervisory powers somewhat 
similar to those exercised by the similar board for the academies. 
We are again reminded of the Prussian system in the similarity 



ORGANIZED EDUCATION 121 

between the board of visitors and the council chosen by the min- 
ister of education. 

This is not the place to trace the development of the univer 
sity farther. Enough has been given to show that Mr. Pierce 
clearly saw the present and future needs of the commonwealth, 
and that, with the development of the natural resources of the 
state, the demand for educational facilities of the higher kind 
would be increasingly greater. Twenty years later, he said, in a 
public address: — 

"To perfect our school system and render it complete in all its 
parts, the University of the State must take and maintain a high 
and elevated position. It must be the polished key stone of the 
grand arch; it must be adorned with all the graces of high liter- 
ary attainments." 

Mr. Pierce held the opinion that the office of superintendent 
of public instruction was a very important and responsible one, 
and that this officer should be endowed with extensive powers. 
The spirit of centralization is everywhere apparent, and the 
Prussian minister of instruction was his model in the formulation 
of his duties. The more important recommendations in respect to 
this officer were as follows: — 

1. To submit to the legislature an annual report exhibiting 
the condition of the university and of the primary school funds, 
also of the primary schools and of the university and it* 
branches; 

2. To prepare suitable forms for making reports required of 
district, township, academic and university boards, and to make 
all suitable regulations for conducting all proceedings under the 
law relating to public instruction. 

3. To appoint the prescribed number of trustees and visitors 
in the different academic boards, and the annual board of visitors 
to the university. 

4. To take charge of all university and school lands, and all 
other property reserved to the state for the purposes of educa- 
cation, and dispose of the same according to law. 

5. To invest all moneys arising from the sale of such lands, 
as directed by law. 



122 JOHN D. PIERCE 

6. To apportion the income of the university fund among its 
branches and the parent institution, and, also, the income of the 
primary school fund among the several townships and cities of the 
state. 

7. To hear and decide all questions arising under the public 
school system, the decision when made to be final. 

In no other way did Mr. Pierce display so great ability as an 
organizer as in the administration of the public funds entrusted 
to his care. He favored the sale of land and the careful invest- 
ment of the proceeds, the income from which should be faithfully 
devoted to the support of schools. That he did this well is shown 
by the results; for in his last annual report to the Legislature he 
shows the total receipts for his term of office to be $186,338.98, of 
which sum $135,648.84 belonged to the School Fund, and 
$50,690.14 to the University Fund. Of this sum $117,860.45 was 
invested, and the balance applied to the use of the schools. 

In conclusion, the work of organization may be summarized 
as follows: — 

1. Mr. Pierce entered upon the duties of Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, fully prepared to perform its duties. He 
reinforced this preparation by a careful study of home conditions 
and foreign influences. 

2. The system was conceived as a unit under state control, 
yet not removed from the people, who were made to feel the 
responsibility of fostering the schools. At the head of the system 
stood a responsible officer, who was commissioned to exercise 
extensive powers of administration. 

3. The plan of the primary schools for all of the people, the 
academies for secondary education and the preparation of teachers, 
and the university for higher education and the professions, 
paved the way for a graded system with all of its attendant insti- 
tutions. 

4. The public school fund and state aid to education empha- 
sized state control, while necessity for direct and local taxation 
fostered direct interest in the schools by the people. 

In the organization of the school system, the founder always 
emphasized the necessity of a centralized agency, and never lost 



ORGANIZED EDUCATION 123 

sight of the dignity and importance of his office. That this was 
true, and that he worked with an intelligent and untiring zeal, is 
well illustrated by a remark 1 of his, made upon the floor of the 
Constitutional Convention ol 1850, when an attempt was made to 
belittle the office which he had held so successfully: — 

"It has been said, I understand, that the officeof Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction has been a 'sinecure'. From my own 
personal experience, having had the honor to fill that office four 
and a half years, I may say it is not so. During that time I 
visited every organized county in the state, and drew up all the 
laws passed in that year in relation to common schools. In my 
first report I advocated that system which the state should adopt 
— that is the free school system. Why is it that Prussia stands at 
the head of education in Europe? For the simple reason, she has 
a Minister of Public Instruction to superintend and foster every- 
thing relating to the education of her people." 



1 See report, p. 535. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE JOURNAL, OF EDUCATION 

The Journal of Education, founded, edited and published by 
John D. Pierce, the first educational paper in the state of Mich- 
igan and in fact in the whole Northwest, deserves more than a 
passing notice. 

Doubtless but few teachers of the present generation have 
ever seen a copy of this paper, and many are unaware of the fact 
that it ever existed. 

The writers have had the rare good fortune, through the 
kindness of a member of Mr. Pierce's family, to come into pos- 
session of the complete files of this journal, and are in this way 
able to place before the public, for the first time, a brief analysis 
and description of it. By setting forth its character, scope, and 
value, it is proposed to make a permanent and easily accessible 
record which it is hoped will prove of value for reference, and 
which will settle all controversies regarding the history of the 
Journal. 

The Journal of Education was printed as an eight-page paper, 
ten by twelve inches in size, with three columns to the page. It 
was issued as a monthly and was continued during two years. 
The first number was dated Detroit, Michigan, March, 1838, and 
was edited by John D. Pierce. This arrangement was continued 
until the following November, when Mr. Pierce associated with 
himself Francis W. Shearman, later superintendent of public 
instruction, who assumed the editorship, a position which he 
held as long as the Journal continued to be published. 

Until December, 1838, the Journal was printed by J. S. & S. 
A. Bagg, Printers, Detroit, Michigan, but with number ten of 
volume one, the place of publication was changed from Detroit 
to Marshall, the printing being done by Henry C. Bunce, of the 
latter place. The terms of subscription were "for a single copy, 

124 



JOl t; s.\ L OF MDrCATKI 




THE MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 



THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 125 

75 cents, payable in all cases in advance," and Alexander McFar- 
ren, of Detroit, was the subscription agent. 

Primarily, the Journal of Education was without doubt intended 
by Mr. Pierce as the official organ of the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, to be used by that officer as a means of 
communication between himself and the subordinate school offi- 
cials. This idea was probably suggested to him in reading 
Mr. Taylor's introduction to Cousin's report of the Prussian 
schools; moreover, such a medium seemed to be necessary, 
owing to the character of the Michigan School System and the 
extensive power vested in the superintendent. In conformity to 
a joint resolution of the Legislature, the Journal of Education 
was sent free to every school inspector in the state, but no pro- 
vision having been made for the payment of postage, it was 
necessary that the recipients should pay one shilling postage in 
order to receive the paper. In an editorial, Mr. Pierce criticizes 
some of the inspectors for refusing to pay this sum, and deplores 
their lack of interest in education. In the second place, it was 
designed to make the Journal an educational magazine that 
should possess a marked literary aud scientific character. In 
addition to the circulars of information and official instructions 
by the Superintendent, the editorials, articles on education, and 
selected matter were of a character calculated to arouse interest 
and afford instruction for both teacher and parent The only 
advertisements appearing were a limited number of book notices. 
The following motto appeared at the heading of each issue: 
"Omnibus scientia, sicict omnibus suffragia: Uteris enim crescit 
respublica, et permanebit. ' ' 

The plan of the paper was somewhat as follows: The 
first page was devoted to editorials concerning the live edu- 
cational questions of the day. They were carefully prepared 
and to the point and, without doubt, exerted considerable influ- 
ence in shaping public opinion. Following the editorials, there 
was usually an extended article or address, by a person of dis- 
tinction, upon some subject relating to education. This was fol- 
lowed by circulars of information issued from time to time by 
the superintendent, interpretations of the school law, com- 



126 JOHN D. PIERCE 

munications and answers to questions, together with interesting 
items of school news from other states. The remainder of the 
Journal was filled with copied articles, from the pens of the best 
writers of the day, selected from the most highly literary maga- 
zines. 

Space will not permit more than a cursory notice of the char- 
acter and scope of each of the above mentioned departments, but 
the mere mention of some of the subjects and their authors will 
show the exceeding high grade of the Journal of Education. As 
one reads it today, almost seventy years after its publication, 
there is the conviction that it would rank at par with any educa- 
tional paper now published. 

Professor C. E. Stowe had been commissioned by the General 
Assembly of Ohio to visit Europe and to make a report upon 
elementary education. 1 This report was made by him in Decem- 
ber, 1837, and was published in full in the first number of the 
Journal of Education. 

M. Victor Cousin not only visited and made reports upon the 
condition of the Prussian schools, but upon those of other Euro- 
pean countries as well. They were translated into English by 
Leonard Horner, of London, and were published in the London 
Courier. From time to time, these were printed in the Journal. 
This fact must have exerted no little influence upon Michigan 
schools, as it kept the people in touch with European school 
conditions. 

Four pages of Number One are taken up with the publication 
of a report on vocal music as a branch of common school educa- 
tion, by T. B. Mason and C. Bucher. 

There appears on page 12 of Vol. 1, the complete text of an 
address delivered by Mr. Pierce, at Detroit, on January 3, 1835, 
before a "Convention of teachers and other friends of universal 
education." In his address is to be found a complete exposition 
of his educational doctrine. On page 76 of Vol. 1, there may also 
be found an address by Mr. Pierce on "The present condition 
and future prospects of Michigan." This was given before the 

1 Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-98. Vol. 1, p. 622. 



THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 127 

Young Men's Christian Association, of Marshall. His masterly 
review of the past showed his remarkable grasp of the general 
affairs of the state and nation, and his predictions for the future 
have been fully realized. 

The following are some of the more extended articles which 
were copied from different sources: — Extracts from the examina- 
tion of Dr. Nicholas Henry Julius before the education commit- 
tee of the British House of Commons, July 7, 1834; Mr. Bucking- 
ham's lectures on geography, copied from the New York Observer; 
and a series of articles on the Abridged History of England, 
taken from the Juvenile Repository. From the Tauton Whig, 
we find a speech by Governor Everett, delivered at a meeting of 
the friends of education at Tauton, Mass. We also find a synop- 
sis of a lecture by Theodore Dwight, Jr., on the management of 
a common school, delivered before the American Institute of 
Instruction, at Boston, in August, 1835. 

In May, 1839, Mr. Crary made an address before the Calhoun 
County Association. This speech was reported in full, and a 
perusal of it convinces the reader of his earnestness in the cause 
of general and universal education, of the liberality and breadth 
of his views upon the subject, and of his thorough endorsement 
of the work of Superintendent Pierce. 

It would be reasonable to suppose that something would appear 
regarding Horace Mann, as he was beginning to come into 
prominence about this time; but a careful search reveals only 
two short notices. In Number 12 of Vol. 1 of the Journal in 
speaking of some periodicals devoted to the cause of education, 
we read: "Common School Journal, edited by Horace Mann, 
and published at Boston. First number just issued." In the 
same number we also read: "A weekly course of lectures has 
been commenced in Boston by some of the most distinguished 
friends of education and chiefly practical instructors. Among 
them are the Rev. Jacob Abbott and Horace Mann, Esq., Secre- 
tary of the Board of Education." 

Superintendent Pierce's circulars to school inspectors prove 
interesting reading, and serve to show strongly the executive 
side of his character. Reference is made to the necessity of the 



128 JOHN D. PIERCE 

preservation of school lands and of jealously guarding the funds 
resulting from their sale. Instructions are given relative to the 
formation and organization of new districts, the opening of 
schools, and the local administration of school affairs. Blank 
forms for school reports are printed, together with definite 
instructions for making them. In the supplement number, the 
full text of the school law is printed, together with explanations 
and interpretations of it. All questions referred to the Superin- 
tendent are fully answered in the Journal. There were also 
printed the reports of a number of important meetings that were 
held in the state. 

The Michigan Historical Society met in Detroit Feb. 28, 1838. 
At this meeting, Hon. Lewis Cass, Minister at the Court of France, 
presented the "Pontiac Manuscript," narratingthe circumstances 
of a conspiracy to take the Fort of Detroit by the Lake Indians, 
in 1763, and Dr. Z. Pitcher presented an original Indian deed of 
the date of 1771 for a farm in Springwells. Among the officers 
of this society, we find the names of John Biddle, C. C. Trow- 
bridge, Dr. Douglas Houghton, and Dr. Abram Sager. 

Quite an extended report of an "Education Convention," 
held in St. Joseph count}', is printed. This convention was held 
for the purpose of considering the question of common schools, 
and to discuss the merits of the existing school laws. The per- 
sons participating in these discussions were representative citi- 
zens of the county. Similar meetings were held in Branch 
and Calhoun counties. The proceedings of these and other 
meetings were reported by Mr. Pierce himself, and he seems 
always to have been an active and interested participant. 

It has been with great interest that the writers have examined 
large number of articles upon all kinds of scientific subjects. The 
range of subject matter is exceedingly extensive, and while from 
the present standpoint of science these treatises would be regarded 
as inaccurate, yet they served a valuable purpose. Agriculture 
and gardening were given much attention, and it is easy to see 
here an anticipation of the idea of the school garden and the 
teaching of agriculture in the schools. There were numerous 
articles on the culture of the sugar beet, in which the advantages 



THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 129 

of its raising were fully set forth. Much space is devoted to all 
branches of natural science and the necessity of giving them a 
proper place in the school curriculum is repeatedly urged. In 
one place Mr. Pierce writes: "In all our schools fate seems to 
have laid its heavy hand upon the study of the sciences. The 
ancient and modern classics occupy by far the greater share of 
attention; but this ought not to be so." This quotation was the 
keynote of his series of excellent articles pleading for the teach- 
ing of natural science. 

Reference should be made to the high moral and religious 
tone given to the paper. The highest sentiment pervades every 
sentence and here, as in no other place, does Mr. Pierce show 
his firm belief in the home and school as the two institutions 
which should care for the religious teaching of children. 

The Journal of Education said nothing about method or device. 
It had to deal with the larger questions of the principles of edu- 
cation. It was not for the teachers alone, but for a wider 
circle. It aroused interest in education and stimulated and 
inspired activity in the organization of schools, and thus lead 
the citizens of the new commonwealth to realize the best in their 
civilization through the upbuilding of all their new institutions. 

This initial movement of an educational publication in the 
Northwest may be regarded as one of Mr. Pierce's greatest 
achievements. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MR. PIERCE'S SECOND APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC LIFE 

When Mr. Pierce's term of office as Superintendent of Public 
Instruction expired in 1841, he returned to Marshall, and to the 
work of the ministry. The record of his life for the next few 
years chronicles nothing of special importance. He had not 
sought popular honors, and now that his educational work was 
over he once more gladly became a simple villager and preacher. 
Public affairs interested him as before, but he followed their 
development from his study and his farm. 

In his business ventures he seems to have been pursued by a 
Nemesis of ill-luck, which, however, was not able to shake his 
equanimity of mind, or his optimism. In the midst of calamities 
he was patient and cheerful. The mill at Ceresco, which he was 
interested in, did not pay, and in a few years collapsed because 
of a poor foundation. His farming, too, was a costly experi- 
ment. The farm lay along the Kalamazoo River and contained 
about a thousand acres, which he and some other men owned on 
a syndicate plan. It was part of a tract of 1700 acres which had 
been entered upon in 1831 bv John Bertram, a wealthy English- 
man, who thought to convert it into an estate on the English 
model. 

Mr. Pierce brought to his farming scientific notions, many of 
which were far in advance of the day. He was a believer in 
thoroughbred stock, and at great expense imported from New 
York a flock of high grade Merinos. But all of the woolen mills 
of the state had spindles for coarse wool, not for fine, and this 
venture failed. In cattle raising and dairying he was more 
successful, but the dishonesty of an employee ruined 
his hopes. A large herd of cattle had been fattened for 
the Buffalo market, but the man who took them there 

130 



SECOND APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC UFE 131 

for him absconded with the proceeds, some $1,900, and left him 
to settle the bills out of his own pocket. Another year he put 
in eighty acres of wheat, but the railrord was not completed to 
Marshall as soon as expected, so there was no market for 
the crop. Finally, to crown the long series of calamities, the 
other members of the syndicate incurred debts without his 
knowledge and left him, as the only man of means, to adjust 
matters. The land was at last sold to satisfy creditors. 

In 1847 Mr. Pierce was elected member of the State House of 
Representatives, and at once began to take an active part in 
legislative affairs. His work as Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion had made him prominent, and his opinions were highly 
regarded. 

The first matter to which he gave his attention was the ques- 
tion of locating a new capital for the state. By previous legisla- 
tive enactment the seat of government had been fixed at Detroit 
till 1847, when it should devolve upon the legislature to arrange 
for its permanent location. Mr. Pierce was one of a committee of 
seven in the House appointed to report upon the subject, but the 
feeling grew so intense that the committee split up into three 
groups and presented three reports. Mr. Pierce stood for mak- 
ing Marshall the capital. This had long been a dream of Cal- 
houn county, and almost from the time the town was platted a 
beautiful site, known yet as Capitol Hill, had been reserved for 
this coming glory. All of Mr. Pierce's arguments for moving the 
capital from Detroit were readily accepted, but the view held by 
the majority that it should be somewhere north of the line of the 
Michigan Central Railroad was too firmly grounded to be over- 
come. Finally, after much lobbying and debate, Lansing, at that 
time only a point in the wilderness, where, as a member said, 
the only bells heard were cow bells, was settled upon and the 
quarrel ended. 

As chairman of the committee on federal relations, Mr. Pierce 
was instrumental in passing a resolution instructing the Michi- 
gan delegation in Congress to oppose the introduction of slavery 
into the territories. This fact should be known now in view of 
the criticism he later drew upon himself during the progress of 



132 JOHN D. PIERCE 

the Rebellion. He was always uncompromisingly opposed to 
slavery, and many documents and public addresses testify to 
this; but he believed some other settlement of the question other 
than by the sword was possible, and he deprecated the national 
policy and war. But no one who knew him well could ever have 
doubted his patriotism. He came of a fighting stock. 
Pierces had fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812. His 
son, James Pierce, at the age of eighteen went out as lieutenant 
in tne Mexican War, and died from hardships endured before 
the war was over. July 4, 1847, Mr. Pierce delivered an address 
in Marshall which closed as follows: — 

"The fortress of our strength is union, and the high purpose 
must be the permanency and improvement of our institutions. 
To be great the whole American people must do what Taylor 
declared after the battle of Buena Vista, 'All pull together.' 
High patriotism and a noble destiny demand it. Then there will 
be preserved to us and our children, and ultimately extended to 
all men of all nations, tongues and tribes, what is now the glory 
of our land, — free principles, free institutions, and free govern- 
ment — thus consummating an ancient prediction: 'They shall sit 
every man under his vine, and under his fig tree, and none shall 
make them afraid.' In conclusion I give you this sentiment : 
The Union, free and independent, one and inseparable, now and 
ever, with a free government, free institutions, free religion, free 
schools, and a free home to all our people." 

As a member of the legislature he was still further noted for 
his efforts in behalf of exemption laws. He always held pro- 
nounced views on the subject, and bad gained some notoriety 
back in the years when the legislature met in Detroit by getting 
a bill passed which secured a team from exemption. In order 
that this might be done the value of the team was limited. 
Opponents of the bill referred to it as "Pierce's Pony 
Bill " In the sessions of 1847-48, Mr. Pierce was instrumental 
in having a law enacted making homesteads exempt. In Febru- 
ary, 1848, he made a memorable speech in the House of Repre- 
sentatives on the subject. In it occurs a paragraph which makes 
his position clear: — 



SECOND APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC LIFE 133 

"I wish to see the adoption of a system of legislation that 
shall care not merely for money but for the man — which shall 
secure a home to every man and his family who shall hereafter 
earn one — to put it beyond the reach of mere contingencies to turn 
a defenceless family into the street. This, Sir, is the object of this 
bill — not to give a man a home, but to preserve it to him when 
once acquired." 

On the fourth of March he took the floor again in behalf of 
the measure: — 

"And I apprehend if the measure proposed in the original 
bill is adopted, still greater good will result. It will have a 
tendency to create an independent yeomanry and to attach men 
to the soil, to their country; to remove a vast amount of mental 
suffering in families. And is this of no consequence? Those 
who have had no experience in these matters, whose business 
has not led them into contact with the poorer classes, have 
no conception of the amount of distress that has been created by 
our oppressive collection laws. During the half century that I 
have lived, I have witnessed much of it, from the incarceration of 
a man in a loathsome prison house with felons, and from the 
turning of families into the highway. For weeks and months, 
from day to day, the wife and her children, the widow and the 
orphan, live in constant expectation that the final process of law 
will be had, and then where to go they know not. These days 
are passed in bitterness and tears, with many sleepless nights, 
for such things cannot be done without producing much mental 
agony. Sir, I would not be the occasion of that suffering in a 
single family, 'For all the gold that sinews ever bought and 
sold,' and I have no doubt that many who have been sordid 
enough to perpetrate such oppression have themselves by a just 
retribution been in their turn reduced to the same object of pov- 
erty and distress. 

"But it is not right in any case. Where a man trusts another, 
he should do it at his peril, at his own risk. And it should not 
be the policy of the government to step in and arm the creditor 
with unlimited powers over the debtor 

"Now, Sir, I wish to see every man protected in his home, 



134 JOHN D. PIERCE 

the strong arm of the government thrown around him, that he 
ma} r have occasion to love his country and its institutions, and 
not to curse the day of his birth because he finds himself in a 
land bearing down his spirits and crushing his energies, and 
sending him out upon the highway a wreck and a vagrant. 

"But, Mr. Speaker, before I close I wish to refer to one objec- 
tion urged on all occasions against liberal measures, urged 
against this bill, urged heretofore, an omnipresent all-pervading 
objection — the passage of this bill will affect our already utterly 
ruined credit abroad. We have a set of croakers, and ever have 
had, whose croaking is as perpetual and as full of sense as the 
peeping of frogs on a warm evening at the opening of spring. 
The cry is that the credit of our state has sunk as low as it can 
be, yet we are told that there is a still deeper abyss to which we 
must sink if this bill is passed. ... I affirm and can prove 
by facts and figures the reverse of all this to be true. Our credit 
abroad at the present time is better than that of any other new 
state, it has been too good, and is as good now as is desirable." 

This was the first of such laws in the United States, but it was 
not long before others similar in nature were found on the statute 
books of almost every state in the Union. 

In the year 1846 the two chief lines of railroad owned by the 
state, the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern, were sold 
to Boston capitalists. At that time the Michigan Central extended 
as far west as Marshall. In the years immediately following the 
sale, before the new management had fairly gotten affairs into 
smooth working order, came the "Railroad War," a series of 
suits and legal actions directed at the Michigan Central Company 
for its failure to recognize liability for damages in accidents 
occurring along its right of way. Mr. Pierce was a strenuous 
defender of the rights of the people, and published in the Demo- 
cratic Expounder of Marshall, a series of letters that aroused 
much comment. Some of them, we suspect, were not pleasant 
reading for officials of the company. For instance this, from an 
article dated June 25, 1849:— 

"The road has been for a long time, one gore of blood. No 
heathen altar ever smoked more continually with the blood of its 



second appearance; in public life 135 

victims. Horses and oxen, and cows, and sheep and hogs — all 
free commoners by law — the road not fenced — and yet we are 
told that the owners are trespassers! They (The Company) 
force their way through our farms, leaving our fields, and 
meadows, and pastures all open as commons, and yet we are 
the trespassers if our stock pass over the road of their high 
mightinesses, and liable to them for damage, though the statute 
of the state expressly declares no such liability can exist where 
there is not a good and lawful fence. See session laws of 1847, 
page 181. Besides, the Company have upon their road the blood 
of one human victim, as the result of that reckless policy which 
has created such an embittered state of public feeling along the 
whole line. His blood is on their track, and they cannot wash it 
away; and more will be there unless something be done, just as 
sure as the sun rises and sets. . . . It is said the Company 
cannot be driven. This should not be desired or expected. But 
there are injured persons who resort to violence because they 
know no other way. They write — they get no answer, and if 
any, it is, 'You are the trespassers, keep your cattle off the 
track.' I have little hope that any reason or argument which is 
not addressed to its cupidity, will induce a moneyed corporation 
to change its course. The history of the past warrants this con- 
clusion. I gave it as my opinion to Mr. Brooks more than two 
years ago, that the Company would find themselves precipitated 
upon such a state of things as now exists, if they changed from 
the policy of the state in paying for damage done to that of non- 
payment. I have no predictions to make, but I give it as my 
deliberate judgment, that if the Company persists in their present 
policy, they will sooner or later arouse such a spirit and energy 
of purpose along the whole line that they will be wholly unable 
either to gainsay or resist it. And it is clear to me that no such 
powers could have been granted to the Company as seem to be 
claimed. The Legislature has no authority to create a body cor- 
porate within the limits of the state and confer upon it rights, 
the exercise of which would bring them into daily collision and 
conflict with its citizens. No Legislature could have been so 
utterly regardless of private rights and the public peace. Some- 



136 JOHN D. PIERCE 

thing must be done — the honor of the state, — its good name, the 
reputation of our citizens, and the interests of the Company, all 
conspire to demand it. The road must be fenced — in the mean- 
time something near the value of property destroyed must be 
paid. It is an outrage, and evidences utter recklessness of life 
and limb of both man and beast that the Company should run 
trains over an unfenced road, where all cattle are by law free 
commoners, at the rate of thirty miles per hour. Even since I 
took up my pen a man west of this has been instantly killed and 
a family left without a protector! That this communication may 
be taken for what it is worth and no more, I subscribe rny name 
to it in full. John D. Pierce." 

The story is told that Mr. Pierce in championing the cau9e of 
a poor widow who had had a yoke of oxen killed by a train, 
exasperated Mr. Brooks, the president of the road, to such an 
extent that he sent word to Marshall: "Tell that parson out 
there he'd better stick to preaching." Mr. Pierce's reply was an 
instance of militant Christianity, to the effect that if the railroad 
company did not reimburse the woman, he would see to it that 
every mile of track in Calhoun county was torn up. Mr. Brooks 
paid. 

As member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, Mr. 
Pierce succeeded in getting his homestead exemption law incor- 
porated in the constitution of the state, where as Art. XVI. it 
has since remained. 

The act to establish a normal school in Michigan became a 
law in 1849, but it was not till the 5th of October, 1852, that the 
first of such schools was formally opened at Ypsilauti. Among 
the many distinguished guests present on that occasion were 
Gen. I. E. Crary, President of the Board of Education, and Mr. 
Pierce. Accompanied by their wives, these gentlemen had 
journeyed over from Marshall, — Mr. Crary to dedicate the build- 
ing, and Mr. Pierce to deliver an address. 1 It is with Mr. 
Pierce's words that we are chiefly concerned, for they were 
almost his last formal utterance on education to the people of 

1 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 1853, p. 56. 




GRAVE OF GEN. ISAAC E. CRARY 
MARSHALL CEMETERY 



SECOND APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC LIFE 137 

the state. Fifteen years before he had laid the foundation of 
our school system, having had even then in mind a place in the 
structure for just such an institution as the one whose dedication 
he was now attending. In a decade and a half such progress 
had been made that it is no wonder he was in an exultant mood, 
and disposed to speak on the theme, "The Perfect School Sys- 
tem," with some degree of assurance. The address was philoso- 
phical, but at the same time highly pedagogical. It exploited 
no chimeras or extravagant notions, but dealt with fundamentals 
and essentials. The concluding sentiments were full of encour- 
agement, prophecy, and benediction: — 

"The fruits of this institution must appear in after times. 
Under good management and wise culture they may entirely be 
anticipated. The assemblage here is a good omen, and is evi- 
dence of increasing interest in the subject of education. Com- 
bined effort is highly important. Individuals can do something 
— much in maturing plans; but to produce the greatest amount 
of good requires the active energies of a whole people. Sus- 
tained by the public, the institution must flourish. Here the 
wisdom and experience of the day will be exhibited, and the best 
helps to facilitate progress near at hand. Assembled from almost 
every section of the State, teachers and others will bring together 
theories and practices of variously trained and constituted minds. 
These theories and diverse practices will be committed to one 
common crucible, and submitted to the test of experiment. 
Opinions will doubtless be rectified, error detected, truth elicited, 
darkness dispelled, and new light thrown upon every mind. To 
pour in light upon the understanding is the grand object of 
instruction. When' light is clear, objects are distinct and visible, 

and easily seen What our teachers need is 

more light; and it is the high purpose of this institution to fur- 
nish it in all its beauty and splendor. How many gems now lie 
concealed which would shine with utmost brilliancy could they 
be brought to light? With equal propriety it may be asked, how 
many minds of the first order that would do honor to the race 
could they be enlightened and cultivated? Light is hence to be 
reflected. When, therefore, those who assemble here return to 



138 JOHN D. PIERCE 

their homes and their duties, they will go with increased qualifi- 
cations and confidence for more extended usefulness. 

"To the guardians of this institution I would say, Go on, 
then, in the noble work; falter not in the good cause; persevere, 
that teachers may be qualified to train up the young spirits of 
our country to high and elevated sentiments; to form noble pur- 
poses; to act on fair and honorable ground; leading them 
onward and upward to virtue, and the full enjoyment of the chief 
good — the To-Kalon of the ancient Greeks ; that ineffable good 
which Christianity has fully revealed, and promised to the pure 
in heart and in life. In this clear and pleasant light, all may see 
and not walk in darkness. Let all remember this noble 
sentiment addresses itself to each and every one: Show thy- 
SEiyF A man. Let there be cooperation and concert, and united 
effort. Education is common ground. All parties can here 
meet; all sects here unite. If we cannot meet on this ground, 
and join our efforts as citizens of one commonwealth to promote 
a common good, we can meet and cooperate nowhere this side of 

the grave It is required of stewards that they be 

found faithful. Such are you; be faithful to the end. And then 
at the winding-up of the great drama of human affairs— at the 
final consummation of all things — when the Son of Man, the 
judge of quick and dead, shall award the destinies of the universe, 
the grateful plaudit shall be, 'Yours, as of all the true and vir- 
tuous of every age and clime — Well done, good and faithful serv- 
ants, Heaven and its mansions are yours.' " 



CHAPTER XV. 

LAST YEARS 
(IN PART PERSONAL RKMINISCENSES BY DR. DANIEL PUTNAM.) 

During the sessions of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, 
Mr. Pierce was taken seriously ill at Lansing, and it was owing 
to the untiring efforts of his friend, Dr. Denton, of Ann Arbor, 
that he recovered. For some years afterward his health remained 
impaired, — it seemed as if the exposures of frontier life were now 
levying a belated toll on his ordinarily vigorous frame. At Mar- 
shall, bereavement and financial reverses had come to sadden the 
associations of his residence there, and he longed for new surround- 
ings. Accordingly, in 1853, he removed to a farm just outside the 
city limits of Ypsilanti, where the recent founding of the Normal 
School offered good opportunities for educating his children. 
Thereafter, for almost thirty years, Ypsilanti was his home. 

Compared with the strenuous activity of the former periods of 
his life, his residence in Ypsilanti was uneventful and tranquil. 
He devoted himself to the interests of his farm, now and then, 
however, accepting an invitation to preach either at home or in 
neighboring towns. For some six months one year he supplied 
the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church in Ypsilanti. This leisurely 
life gave him opportunity to pursue again many lines of reading 
and study, particularly in theology, which the duties of earlier 
years had interrupted. 

It was at this time that he became very much impressed with 
the force of millenarian doctrines, and was greatly interested in 
the interpretation of the Scriptures from that standpoint. He 
enjoyed very friendly relations with Dr. John Lord, a prominent 
divine in the East, and it is reported that at one time he was 
offered an editorial position on some publication conducted by 
Mr. Lord, but he could not see his way clear to accept it. He 

139 



140 JOHN D. PIERCE 

continued, nevertheless, to be an enthusiastic reader and admirer 
of Mr. Lord, seeing in him a scholar who argued, like himself, 
for a reconciliation of science and theology. Mr. Pierce occupied 
no advanced position in his standards of Biblical criticism. 
Though he had tastes for many lines of scientific investigation 
— among others geology — he never cherished any doubt concern- 
ing the absolute reliability of the Scriptures, and accepted them 
in all their literalness, in spite of the queries which science, fifty 
years ago, even, was beginning to raise, touching many things of 
religion and faith. 

We have seen that as a boy John Pierce was religious — deeply 
so. And as a man he did not change. But his piety was of the 
staunch, unyielding type of the Calvinist, rather than of the 
emotional and evangelistic spirit of Wesley or John Bunyau. 
With him a religious life was the postulate of common sense, not 
the product of feeling or occasion, and he cultivated it as one goes 
about a business. When a young man he wrote out in a little 
book, 528 "Questions on Theology," with arguments that remind 
one of Johnathau Edwards. It is interesting as showing how 
rational his religious life was. But in spite of all of this, he was 
not unkind or unsympathetic toward others who did not see as he 
did — his tolerance and benevolence were too broad for that. He 
had endured trouble and adversity, — that was bond enough 
between him and his fellow men. 

At the close of the Civil War, the course of which he had fol- 
lowed with dire forebodings, he removed from his farm into the 
city of Ypsilanti. His only surviving son, Augustus, upon whom 
he was coming to lean more and more as the years slipped by, 
died about this time. The loss was a cruel blow to the rapidly 
ageing man, who had been no stranger to the havoc of death. In 
December, 1865, thinking a change of climate might prove of 
benefit to his health, he went to Florida, but all the advantages of 
temperature in the South were nothing compared with the 
undeveloped and backward conditions prevailing there. The next 
spring he returned in disappointment, and bought the home in 
Ypsilanti in which he continued to reside as long as he remained 
in Michigan. 



I,AST YEARS 141 

In town he still kept up his interest in public affairs, and for a 
time was president of the local school board. He was a regular 
attendant during those years upon institutes and teachers' meet- 
ings, and entered heartily into discussions of educational prob- 
lems. He was getting old, but getting old gracefully and 
sweetly, and no matter whether attending some debate among the 
young men of the Normal School, or sitting as an honored guest 
at the right hand of the President of the University at a banquet, 
he was the same simple, delightful, gracious old gentleman. 

Various attempts had been made by his party — he was a staunch 
Democrat — to draw him again into public life, and more than 
once after his removal to Ypsilanti, his name had appeared on a 
state ticket. But the party was weak in the years immediately 
following the war, and he always met defeat along with other 
nominees. Nevertheless, for two years in the 60's he served as 
Superintendent of Schools for Washtenaw county, and did all his 
work with energy and effectiveness, such as had characterized him 
in an earlier period. In his trips over the county his daughter 
Sarah, ! a very accomplished young woman, usually accompanied 
him, and proved herself to be a very able assistant. 

His educational work at this time will be best appreciated 
from the following" Personal Reminiscences," kindly contributed 
by Dr. Daniel Putnam, of the Normal College. 

"During the first years of my life in Michigan, I met Mr. 
Pierce occasionally at the meetings of the State Teachers' Asso- 
ciation and elsewhere. Of his work in the organization of the 
school system of the state, I had at that time only a very indefinite 
and general knowledge. 

"In the year 1867 the law creating the office of county 
superintendent of schools was enacted, and under this law Mr. 
Pierce was elected Superintendent in Washtenaw county, as I was 
in Kalamazoo. The progressive school men of the state were 
exceedingly anxious that the county superintendency should 
prove successful. It had been secured after long and strenuous 
effort, and a considerable number of prominent teachers had 

1 Married John Graham, of Owosso, in 1873; died 1878. 



142 JOHN D. PIERCE 

allowed themselves to be candidates for the office on account of 
their interest in the appointment. 

"Very soon after the election, State Superintendent Hosford 
called a meeting of the newly elected superintendents at Jack- 
son. This meeting was held on the 15th and 16th days of May, 
1867. Superintendent Pierce was made chairman of the tempor- 
ary organization, and served until a more formal and permanent 
organization was effected at the next meeting of the State Teach- 
ers' Association. My real acquaintance with Superintendent 
Pierce commenced at this Jackson meeting. 

"In September of the next year, 1868, I became a member of 
the Faculty of the State Normal School, and removed from 
Kalamazoo to Ypsilanti. From that time on I was a neighbor of 
Mr. Pierce, and had opportunities of becoming acquainted with 
him, with the work which he was then doing, and with something 
of the work which he had done at an earlier period in the organi- 
zation and establishment of the Michigan public school system. 

"When this acquaintance began, Mr. Pierce had passed his 
seventieth year. The hardships and exposures of early pioneer 
life had left their marks upon his originally vigorous and 
stalwart frame. But his mental strength and acumen were 
unimpaired, and his interest in educational affairs continued 
unabated. He believed in the excellency and superiority of the 
public school of the state, and was naturally jealous of its honor. 
He was not, however, blind to the defects and shortcomings of 
the schools, especially of the common rural schools. He entered 
zealously and intelligently into the work of the county super - 
intendency. He saw the possibilities of the system, and also the 
dangers to which it was exposed. 

"The character of his work and some of his opinions upon 
educational affairs will be best comprehended by reference to the 
reports of what he did and saw in Washtenaw county. I make a 
few excerpts from his report for 1867. He says:— 'I have held 
the past season two County Teachers' Institutes. I have visited 
eighty-one districts in the eastern part of the county, and fifteen 
rooms of graded schools. I have held thirty-eight examinations 
at different times and places; 207 applicants have been examined, 



LAST YEARS 143 

and 183 certificates of all grade given.' These items show the 
zeal and energy with which he entered upon the duties of his 
office, and his interest in the progress of education in the 
county. 

"As was not unnatural at this period of his life, Mr. Pierce 
was inclined to what most people called conservatism; he 
believed in progress, in improvement in means and methods of 
teaching, and of school management; especially he believed in 
the necessity of securing a higher grade of qualification in teach- 
ers of the rural schools. If he ever lost patience it was when he 
saw the work of incompetent teachers. In this report he wrote : — 
'How preposterous, and even cruel and wicked, to put into the 
schoolroom incompetent teachers ! It must not be done. The 
waste of money is not to be compared with the loss of time to the 
rising generation.' 

"In the matter of methods of teaching, Mr. Pierce was not 
always hospitable to strangers without credentials. He wrote: — 
'I have heard a vast deal the past twenty years, of progress and 
new methods of teaching, and accordingly have been greatly 
surprised to find such lamentable deficiency among so many of 
our teachers.' He gave several amusing samples of the answers 
written by teachers in his examinations, to illustrate the woeful 
ignorance and lack of preparation on the part of candidates for 
positions in the schools. The greatest deficiency he found was in 
spelling; he insisted that the pupils of to-day were more deficient 
in spelling than those of twenty -five or fifty years ago. Some 
vigorous discussions upon this matter took place in the meetings 
of teachers at which Mr. Pierce was present, the younger school 
men being disposed to resent the imputation upon the character 
of the present spelling. 

"Upon the matter of hobbies, generally, Mr. Pierce had very 
decided views, and was very outspoken in expressing them. He 
said: 'Is not this a day of hobbies? We have the grammar 
hobby, with a set of new illogical terms; the defining hobby; the 
object lesson hobby; the drawing and map-drawing hobby, and 
various others. And now we have anew one coming into vogue, 
and it, too, must have its run. I may add that the peculiarity of 



144 JOHN D. PIERCE 

the leading hobby- riders is— they all have books to sell. These 
things have a relative importance, but they should not be 
allowed to crowd out weightier matters.' 

"Possibly these brief extracts from his report will leave an 
impression that Mr. Pierce, at this period of his life, was dis- 
posed to cling somewhat too firmly to the old, and to oppose the 
introduction of the new. A statement in this form would do him 
injustice; he recognized fully the deficiencies of the old schools, 
and the possibility of improvements; but he did not sympathize 
with the idea that a device or method was worthless because it 
was old, or that a device or method was good, simply because it 
was new. One who takes this view is liable to be misunderstood 
and classed with 'back numbers' and 'old fogies.' Mr. Pierce 
was never a 'back number' or a 'fogy.' He consistently believed 
in testing, or 'proving all things,' and holding fast to that 
which was proved to be good. 

"During the second year of his superintendency, in addition 
to the regular work which devolved upon him, and was more 
than enough to tax severely his physical strength, he delivered at 
Marshall a lecture upon 'Early Times in the Territory and 
State,' and published an 'Address to Parents,' and another to 
'Teachers in the Primary Schools' of Washtenaw county, His 
old-time zeal in educational work still possessed him, and his 
services were of great value both to schools and teachers. 

"After the close of his term as County Superintendent, he 
still retained his interest in school affairs, attending with con- 
siderable regularity the meetings of Teachers' Associations, and 
frequently visiting exercises and classes in the Normal School. 
He had delivered the principal address at the dedication of the 
first building of the school, and till the close of his life in Michi- 
gan, maintained a peculiar regard for that institution. When the 
school received what he believed to be unjust criticism, he was 
always ready to defend it with voice and pen. He thought of it 
as in some sense a child of his own, and took pride in its 
prosperity. 

"In closing these brief remiuiscenses, I quote from an address 
given by Mr. Pierce to the county superintendents at a meeting in 



LAST YEARS 145 

July, 1868, to show the sound, practical common sense and good 
judgment which he brought to the solution of the problems pre- 
sented to him, and also the tone and temper of his mind. In 
speaking of his work in the organization of the school system of 
the state, and of the fact that some things which he very much 
desired could not be secured at that early time, he said: — 'In this 
connection allow me to suggest that the question with the states- 
man is, not what I may like to do — what I may wish to accom- 
plish, but how much can I accomplish? This includes an appre- 
ciation of all the circumstances with which he is surrounded. So 
with the teacher when he enters the school room. What he 
wishes to do is one thing, what he may be able to do is another 
and a very different thing. He must examine his materials, 
measure and weigh them, before he can decide what and how 
much he can do.' 

"In closing his address, Mr. Pierce said: 'I have thus given 
you a mere outline of the past of Michigan, so far as its educa- 
cational interests are concerned. No state ever started into being 
with so man}' warm and devoted friends as our state. Five of the 
best years of my life I gave to the work. In it I travelled by 
night and by day — on one occasion five whole nights out of eight 
— not in railroad palaces, but in lumber wagons and stage 
coaches, through rain, mud, frost, and storm. But I can truly 
say I feel myself fully compensated. I have had my day, or 
nearly so. My work is nearly done. If I am spared to go 
through my present term it is all that I can expect. You and 
each of you will have yourday, and your work. But of all work 
on this living earth, there is none to compare with teaching 
children and youth. Gentlemen, the land is before you. Go in 
and possess it The field is broad and promising; cultivate it; — 
a rich harvest is in the future. The guardianship of hundreds of 
thousands of children and youth is committed to you.' 

"These utterances were, in some sense, the final benediction 
of the founder and father of the public school system of the state, 
addressed to his associate superintendents, and through them to 
the great army of Michigan teachers. One may be glad to 
remember that he listened to them." 



146 JOHN D. PIERCE 

The last ten years of life in the state, from 1870 to 1880, were 
passed in the peaceful quiet in his town home. His health, 
which had not been good for twenty years, began to fail now more 
and more. But his mind was as sturdy and vigorous as ever. By 
the close of the decade he had grown so feeble that it seemed best 
for him and Mrs. Pierce to give up their home in Ypsilanti, and 
go to live with the last of their children, Mrs. M. A. Emerson, of 
Meadford, Mass. And so in 1880, after a residence in Michigan 
of almost fifty years, Mr. Pierce returned to New England. For 
a time his health was improved by the change, but he was not 
quite happy; Massachusetts was too rough and barren, — he 
missed the fields and fertility of the West. 

In 1881 his health began to fail again from aggravation of 
asthma, from which he had long been a sufferer. Some six 
weeks before his death, at the earnest solicitation of the many 
Michigan people in the East, he attended a reunion of the alumni 
of Michigan University at the Vendome, in Boston. He was hon- 
ored with every attention on this occasion, and expressed his 
appreciation of the kind reception in a few well chosen words. 
After his return he grew rapidly worse, and on the 5th of April, ' 
1882, passed away. 

Mr. Pierce had long been prepared for death, but even when 
broken in body he had cherished no undue desire to quit the 
world. He loved life and living with a consuming zest, — he had 
seen so much, and helped create so much, in our civilization, 
that he took delight in what this civilization meant, and he 
watched it in its unfolding with all the interest of a man in the 
prime of life. Michigan was dear to him, and when at last he 
knew the hour had come, he could not die content till he had 
exacted a promise that he should be buried in the cemetery at 
Marshall, among those whom he had loved and labored with in 
pioneer days. This was granted. After funeral services at 
Medford, the body was brought to Marshall, where services were 
again held, in charge of the Masonic order, in the Presbyterian 
Church. A throng had assembled to do honor to his memory, 

1 The date, April 6, on the monument in Marshall is incorrect, the mis- 
take being due to the undertaker's certificate. 




GRAVE OF JOHN D. PIERCE 
MARSHALL, MICH. 



LAST YEARS 147 

and a long line of carriages followed the remains to the 
grave. On the simple monument where he rests, one may 
read: — 

REV. JOHN D. PIERCE 

DIED 

apr. 6, 1882 
aged 85 years. 



FOUNDER OF MICHIGAN'S 
SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



ERECTED BY TEACHFRS 

AND PUPILS OF THE 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF MICHIGAN. 

John Davis Pierce lived a long and useful life, and that is no 
mean heritage to posterity. But he was able, beyond the power 
of most men, to influence the cultural development of a great 
state, and for that reason he deserves to be remembered. He was 
a great man, viewed from any angle of human perspective, — 
great in physical vigor and endurance, great in ability to cope 
with huge problems, great in mind and soul, He was great, too, 
in his simplicity, a noble type of real democracy. Says Professor 
Joseph Estabrook, himself a man among men, in a letter of con- 
dolence to Mr. Pierce's daughter 1 — "I have learned to love and 
respect him, as I have loved but few men of my acquaintance. I 
never beard him speak without being instructed by what he said. 
He was unostentatious, modest, and pure minded. Few men 
have done more for the glory and prosperity of Michigan than 
your father; and very few in coming time will be remembered 
with greater respect. Among the last things he said to me after 
returning from Commencement two years ago, was: 'My work 
is done. It is my last visit to the University. Others must build 
on foundations that I have laid with much conflict and strong 

i Dated from Olivet, Mich., Apr. 14, 1882. 



148 JOHN D. PIERCE 

opposition.' He further said: 'Tell the peoplewhenl am gone, 
that I have an unwavering faith in God's Word. I believe it all 
from Genesis to Revelation. All my hope for the future rests 
upon the Saviour there revealed.' " 

No history of education in America will be complete that does 
not give a large place to the work of John D. Pierce. He belongs 
in the list of great educators. In the past such a position has 
not been accorded him, more from ignorance and indifference, 
we think, than from intent. There is, alas! as yet, no well- 
defined sentiment in our state and nation to rear monuments to 
great men, — not even monuments of appreciation in the story of 
our progress. Two men above others in the United States — 
Horace Mann, and Henry Barnard, have been given, justly so, 
great distinction in American education. They have been regarded 
as pioneers, as path-finders, in the development of pub- 
lic instruction, and their fame has been deserved. But 
John D. Pierce is equally worthy of honor and remem- 
brance, for he, too, was a pioneer in the great work of schooling 
a nation. As, President Angell says, 1 "Henry Barnard did not 
do more for the schools of Rhode Island, nor Horace Mann for 
those of Massachusetts, than John D. Pierce did for those of 
Michigan." Nor must it be forgotten that Henry Barnard and 
Horace Mann did their work in New England, the home of cul- 
ture and intelligence, where education had been a cherished tra- 
dition for two centuries, and public opinion a powerful agent in 
reform for at least two generations. John D. Pierce had as a 
background for his efforts, the wilderness, and in the midst of 
chaotic and undeveloped conditions, among struggling and 
impoverished settlers, he did his work. The school system he 
devised and put in operation was a complete one — so complete, 
indeed, that it might almost be regarded as a new product. 
Surely it was vastly different from a graft on an old trunk which 
stood deeply rooted in a fertile soil. We are proud of our system 
of public education which John D. Pierce inaugurated; it is the 
crowning glory of our commonwealth. 

1 Oration delivered at the Semi-Centennial of the University of Michigan, 
18S7. 



IyASX YEARS 149 

There are some who, while ready in general to acknowledge 
the ability and achievements of Mr. Pierce, pronounce him only 
a skilful imitator of the two famous New England educators. 
But it is out of the question that he should have borrowed ideas 
from Henry Barnard who did not become school commissioner of 
Rhode Island till 1843. And as to being an imitator of Horace 
Mann — the reverse is much more likely to have been the case. 
Mr. Pierce's appointment to office preceded Mr. Mann's by almost 
a year; and the report in which he outlined his proposed system 
of education for the state was issued two years before Mr. Mann's 
first annual report. He also began the publication of The 
Journal of Education almost a year before the appearance of 
The Common School Journal in Massachusetts. 

No, John D. Pierce was not an imitator; he was an 
originator, independent in strength of mind and soul, and 
gifted with a vision keen enough to discern the future of western 
culture and civilization. And we can do no better than live up 
to his ideals. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

QUOTATIONS FROM MR. PIERCE'S EDUCATIONAL WRIT- 
INGS 

The following terse expressions from the pen of Mr. Pierce 
will not only serve to illustrate the character of the man, but will 
give the reader a deeper insight into his broad and comprehen- 
sive views upon education and life: — 

"None of the rich treasures of learning are gained by inherit- 
ance; there is no such thing as innate, inbred, hereditary 
knowledge." 

"If a people have any rights, the right of revolution is one of 
them." 

"Every human being has a right to a good education." 

"It ought to be borne in mind that the education of a child is 
far less expensive than the support of an aged criminal." 

"Ignorance is a fearful foe to freedom ; but knowledge without 
virtue is certain death to the republic." 

"We must educate, or forge bars, bolts and chains." 

"He that provideth not for his own hath denied the faith and 
is worse than an infidel." 

"The blood of the hard-handed laborer is just as royal as that 
of the king on his throne." 

"It is a radical error to contemplate human beings merely in 
the mass." 

"The neglect of one individual may lead to the neglect of 
many individuals." 

"So long as the principles of humanity, a love of justice and 
equity, reign in the hearts of the majority, we, as individuals, 
are free and safe." 

"Education is the great business of human life." 

150 



QUOTATIONS FROM EDUCATION AI, WRITINGS 151 

11 'Tis education that makes the state and exalts the empire." 

"No schools are so expensive as private schools." 

"Nothing more is wanting to put our schools on high and 
prominent ground, than the general cooperation of the public and 
a full supply of well qualified teachers." 

"Progress is the great law of human existence." 

"There are chords in every human heart that maybe touched, 
and vibrate as they are touched. And it is the business of the 
teacher to do it." 

"A perfect school system must have a [living soul and the 
teachers are its life and vital energy, its prevading, animating 
spirit." 

"A thoroughly trained and skilful teacher, with the most 
ordinary books, will do vastly more for his school than an 
incompetent teacher can with the best books ever written." 

"I would make it imperative that the English language 
should be taught." 

"A child old enough to know what addition is and how to 
perform the process, is just as capable of understanding the 
reason why one is carried for every ten as any teacher." 

"Nothing can compensate for the want of purity and sim- 
plicity in the language of a book designed for the youthful 
mind." 

"No person can ever be a good teacher and be successful, who 
cannot throw himself back upon the days of his childhood and 
youth, and call up a vivid recollection of his own history in the 
acquisition of knowledge." 

"Many a child has been called dull and stupid because he 
could not apprehend the meaning of a proposition made of 
abstract terms. The stupidity and dullness were the teacher's 
own." 

"The reason why children read large portions of the Bible 
with interest, is because they understand the language. In this 
regard it exceeds all other books." 

"Children do not learn the meaning of words from books. 



152 JOHN r>. PIERCE 

This is done in the home and in the open field, in connection 
with nature." 

"Chiding or flogging will not cure the uneasy child." 

"Give a free recess after each hour of work." 

"The people have a right to expect and demand that every 
institution created by law and sustained by them, should do its 
duty." 

"I am in favor of free schools and I hope, before I pass off 
the stage, that I shall find this state the first in the Union in the 
cause of education, and that every child will be able to read and 
write and to feel that by education he is a man." 

"Primary schools are the main dependence in the attainment 
of the ideal government of the people by the people." 

"The time of every man is his property and cannot, either 
justly or constitutionally, be taken and given to the public with- 
out remuneration." 

"The Prussian System originated with the people. The gov- 
ernment arranged the material already existing into one har- 
monious whole and extended the benefits of the system to all 
parts of the kingdom." 

"No education can be regarded as complete without a knowl- 
edge of agriculture." 

"Children, as well as men, love improvement." 

"Liberal laws and institutions constitute the glory of a state." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York, 1888. 
Barnard. Journal of Education, vol. 15. 

Brown. Statistics of Michigan in 1860. Lansing, 1861. 

Education in Michigan, Ohio and Massachusetts. 
Bureau of Education Reports. Nos, 11-13. 

The Government of Michigan — Its History and Jur- 
isprudence. Kalamazoo, 1874. 

Burton. Early Education in Detroit. The Gateway. 1904. 

Chapman. History of Washtenaw County. Chicago, 1881. 

Campbell. Political History of Michigan. Detroit, 1876. 

Cousin, M. Victor. Report of Public Instruction in Prussia, 
(translated by Sarah Austin). New York, 1835. 

Cooley. Michigan. A History of Governments. Boston, 1899. 

Davidson. Rousseau and Education According to Nature. 

The First Fifty Years of Michigan Congregational Churches. 

1892. 
Hennepin. A New Discovery of a Vast Continent. London, 

1698. 

Hubbard. Memorials of Half a Century . New York, 1888. 

Hinsdale. American Educational Histoty. Report U. S. Com- 
missioner of Education. 1892-93, vol. 1. 

Foreign Influences upon Education. Report U. S. 
Commissioner of Education. 1897-98, vol. 1. 

The Old Northwest. New York, 1888. 

Horace Mann and the Common School Revival. New 
York, 1898. 

Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1850. 

153 



154 | JOHN D. PIURCK 

Les Relations des Jesuites. 1670-1. 

Lanman. Red Book of Michigan. Detroit and Washington, 1899. 

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vols. 1, 3, 5, 12, 
13, 14, 17, 22, 31. 

The Semi Centennial of the Admission of the State of Michigan. 
Addresses, 1886. 

Michigan and its Resources. Lansing, 1893. 

Mayo, A. D. Education in the Northwest. 1790-1840. Report 
U. S. Commissioner of Education. 1894-95, vol. 2. 

Monroe. Comenius and Educational Reform. New York. 

McLaughlin . History of Higher Education in Michigan . Bureau 
of Education Report. No. 11. 

McCracken. Michigan and the Centennial. Detroit, 1876. 

Pinloche. Pestalozzi. New York. 

Pierce. Reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of 
Michigan. 1836-40. History of Calhoun County. 
Philadelphia, 1887. 

Proceedings of Michigan State Legislature of 1847-1848. 

Putnam, Daniel. Primary and Secondary Public Education in 
Michigan. Ann Arbor, 1904. 

Reports of Superintendent of Public Instruction. 36-3; 37-1 
38-1; 39-al; 40-312J; 67-113; 68-138; 37-20; 47-bl3 
51-422, 424, 425, 428, 430, 432, 447; 52-56; 57-259; 80-425 

Salmon. Education in Michigan During the Territorial Period 
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vol 
7, p. 36. 
Land Grants for Education. Ibid. Vol. 7, p. 17. 

Sheldon. The Early History of Michigan. New York, 1856. 

Thwaites. Father Marquette. New York, 1903. 

Tuttle. History of Michigan. Detroit, 1874. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 

LETTERS, PAPERS, ADDRESSES, ETC., OF, OR RELAT- 
ING TO, JOHN D. PIERCE 

528 Questions on Theology, ca. 1825. IMS. 

Letters addressed to Rev. Enoch Pond, 1826. MS. 

Article on Temperance, ca. 1830. MS. 

Questions and Answers in Natural Philosophy, ca. 1825. MS. 

Address on Education before citizens of Calhoun Co. ca. 1840. 

MS. 
Sermon on Text: "But bring them up in the nurture and 

admonition of the Lord." 1825. MS. 
Essay on Dugald Stewart, ca. 1824. MS. 
Paper on Slavery, ca. 1855. 32 pages. MS. 
Sermon. Psalms, 58:31, ca. 1855 or 60. MS. 
Oration. (Printed) — delivered at Marshall, July 4, 1847, with 

late MS. additions. 
Extracts from Minutes of the Oneida Association, Sangerfield, 

N. Y., May 11, 12, 13—1830. MS. 
Letter addresses to Lisbon Congregational Society, April 21 

1830. MS. 
Transcript of Record of Oneida Association. Pamphlet, MS. 

May, 1830. 
"The Earth — Its History and Final Destiny." Lecture, MS. 

Marshall, ca. 1840. 
" Proof of the Existence of a Supreme Being." MS. ca. 1825. 
' ' The Origin and Progress of the Michigan School System ." MS . 

1875. 
Letter from Hon. Jos. Estabrook to Mrs. M. A. Emerson, April 

7, 1882. 
Journal of Education. Vols. I, II. 1838-39. 



INDEX 



Academy, 118, 119. 

Address to the German People. Fichte. 

12. 
Alsted, John, 9. 
Angell, James B., quoted, 148. 
American Institute of Instruction, 

82. 
American Students in Europe, 12. 
American Academy of Arts and 

Sciences 16. 
American Renaissance in Education, 

14. 
American Home Missionary Society, 

71. 
Arithmetic, 109. 
Aristotle, 7. 
Agriculture, 110, 128. 
Association of Ideas, 105. 
Astronomy, Copernican System of, 7. 
Abbott, Rev, Jacob, 127. 
Arnold, Benedict, 30. 
Allouez, Claude, 22; quoted, 23. 
Austin, Mrs. Sarah. 19. 
Authority, 6. 

B 

Banking, wild-cat, 86. 
Black-Hawk War, 79. 
Battle Creek, 75, 78. 
Barnard, Henry, 148. 
Bagg, J. S. & S. A., 124. 
Bertram, John, 130. 
Bird, Captain, 27. 
Biddle, John, 128. 
Bounty lands for soldiers, 31. 
Brown University, 60. 
Board of Visitors, 120. 



Board of Regents, 120. 
Board of Supervisors, 119. 
Bucher, C, 126. 
Bunce, Henry C, 124. 



Cadle, Rev. Richard, 44. 

Crawford, Rev. R. C, 44. 

Cadillac. 25. 

Crary, Isaac E., 19, 79, 127, 136. 

Calhoun County Association, 127. 

Classical Education, 118. 

Cass, General Lewis, 31, 128. 

Catholepistemiad, 17,41, 48. 118. 

Cleveland, Mary Ann, 68. 

Cleveland, General, 68, 75. 

Ceresco, 78, 130. 

Chesterfield, 56. 

Centralization, 50, 53. 

Cincinnati, 83. 

"Chicago Pike", 32. 

Civilization, Institutions of, 92. 

Citizen, Intelligence of, 93. 

Civics, 110. 

Coureurs de bois, 25. 

College of Professional Teachers, S3. 

Cooley, Judge, 48. 

Cousin. M. Victor, 19, 126. 

Cousin's Report 'of the ! Prussian 

Schools, 80. 
Constitutional Convention, 80. 
Colonial Schools, 14. 
Congregationalism, 73. 
Cholera, 76. 

Cogswell, Dr., 17; quoted, 18. 
Common School Journal, 127, 149. 
Comenius, John Amos, 8, 9, 105, 



157 



158 



INDEX 



County Teachers' Institutes, 142. 
Course of Study, 20, 108. 
Church, The, 89. 
Curriculum, in pioneer days, 43. 

D 

Dablon, Claude, 22. 
Day, Jeremiah, 83. 
Davidson, Thomas, quoted, 11. 
Detroit, 84;' founding of, 25; early 

population, 33. 
Development, 99, 102, 105. 
Declaration of Independence, 11, 28. 
Detroit Gazette, 29. 
Descartes Rene, 8. 
DeTocqueville, quoted, 36, 39, 44. 
Denton, Dr., 139. 
Democrat Expounder , 78, 134, 
Dix, John A., 82. 
Dilhet, Father John, 40. 
Dwight, Theodore, 127, 
District Board, 116, 



Estabrook, Joseph, 147. 

Estabrook, Millicent, 66. 

Edwards, Jonathan, 140. 

Emerson, Mrs. M. A., 146. 

Exemption laws, 132. 

Environment, 99. 

Emile, The, 11. 

Edict of Nantes, 14. 

Erie Canal, 32, 34. 

English influence on America, 8. 

European educational tendencies, 6; 
influences, 14. 

Educational principles, 88. 

Educational method, 103. ff. 

Educational needs in 1837, 20. 

Educational Inheritance, 13. 

Educational doctrine — Sources of Mr. 
Pierce's, 88. 

Education— universal, 7; beginning 
of modern, 7; higher, in the terri- 
tory, 41; free and universal, 91; 
necessity for, 95; design of, 96; 



ethical basis, 97; as development, 
97; definition of, 101; theory of, 101; 
as a science and art, 102; organized, 
114; difficulties, 112. 



Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 17. 

Fellenberg school, 12. 18. 

Freedom, 7. 

Fellenberg, 17. 

French influence on America, 8, 16. 

Fort Pontchartrain, 25. 

Foster, Sarah Davis (Pierce), Note, 71. 

Frontenac, 24. 



Geography, 110. 

German influence on America, 8, 17. 

Great Didactic. The, 9, 10. 

Griscom, John, 18. 

Gosheu, 71. 

Government, stability of, 91. 

Gymnasium, 119. 

H 

Harvard College, 15. 

Hall, Moses, 78. 

Harmony, 89. 

Hennepin, quoted. 25. 

History, 110. 

Hosmer, Edmund, 71. 

Hofwyl— Fellenberg's School at, 12. 

Home, The, 95. 

Holden, 66. 

Hosford, State Superintendent, 142. 

Homestead laws, 133. 

Homestead exemption, 136. 

Houghton, Dr. Douglas, 128. 

Horner, Leonaid, 126. 

Huron Indians, 23. 

Hull, General William, 29, 30. 

Human Rights, 150. 



Inflation, 86. 
Imagination, 105. 



INDEX 



159 



Inheritance, 98. 
Idea, 105. 

Ideal, perpetuation of, 5. 
Institute of Instruction, 82. 
Institutionalism, 10. 
Individuality, 7. 

Individual, 91; relation to the institu- 
tion, 90; two-fold function of, 89. 
Ionia, 35. 

Iroquois Indians, 23. 
Ignorance, 150. 
Instruction, 94, 101; religious, 100. 



Jefferson, Thomas, 16. 

Journal of Education, 18, 87, 124, 149. 

Jogues, Isaac, 22. 

Juvenile Repository, 127. 

Julius, Dr. Nicholas Henry, 127. 



K 

Kimbal, Stephen, 76. 
Knowledge, 100, 104. 



La Salle, 24. 

Land, in territory— price, 31. 

Lancasterian School, 41. 

Lake Superior— Lac Tracy, 22. 

Lansing, 131. 

Language, 110. 

Leonard and Gertrude, 12. 

Learning, process of, 105. 

Libraries, 20, 51, 52, 117. 

Locke, John, 8. 

Louis XIV., 7. 

Lord, Dr. John, 139. 

London Courier, 126. 

Lusson, Monsieur de, 22. 

M 

Mackinac, 25. 

Madison, 68, 76. 

Mann, Horace, 14, 83, 127, 148, 149. 

Marshall, 73,131, 146, 



Mason, Steveus T., Governor, 81. 

Marcy, William L., 82. 

Man, rights of, 91. 

Masonry, 70. 

Masonic party, 67. 

Manitoulin Island, 23. 

Marquette, 23. 

Marquette, Jacques, 22, 23. 

Mason, T. B., 126. 

Memory, 105. 

Menard, 22. 

Mental elements, 105. 

Meadford, 146. 

Method, a new philosophical, 7; 
meaning of, 106. 

Michigan, organized as a territory, 
27; in the Revolutionary War, 27; 
population of, 32; physical condi- 
tions, 31; school system an evolu- 
tion, 47; possibilities of, 93. 

Michigan Historical Society, 128. 

Mississippi, Discovery of, 24. 

Minister of Public Instruction, 53, 

Moravians. The, 14. 

Moral Powers, 105. 

Monarchies, 7. 

Monteith, Rev. Mr., 41. 

Motive of early settlers, 6. 

Morgan, William, 67. 

McLaughlin, Prof., quoted, 114, 

McCamley, Judge Sands, 38. 

Mcllvane, Bishop, letter to Mr. Pierce 
85. 

N 

National Ideals, 5, 13. 

Nature, 105. 

Nature Study, 110. 

New York Observer, 127. 

Newberry, Mrs. EUhu, 84. 

New England Review, The, 79. 

New England Puritans, 14, 15. 

New France, 21. 

Normal Schools. 107, 119. 

Normal School, dedication of, at 
Ypsilanti, 136. 

Northwest Territory, 21. 



160 



o 

Oak— the Pierce, 81. 
Ottawa Indians, 23. 
Ottawa Mission, 22. 
Osband. M.D., quoted, 34, 36. 
Organization, summary of, 121. 
Oswego Normal School, 18. 
Ordinance of 1787, 28. 
Orthodoxy, Mr. Pierce's, 69. 



Paxton, 56. 

Park, Prof, Calvin, 61. 

Perception, 105. 

Pere Sagard, 22. 

"Personal Reminiscenses," by Dr. 
Daniel Putnam, 141. 

Pestalozzi, 11, 17, 18. 

Prentice, George D., 79. 

Pioneer, life, 32, 33; The house of, 37; 
the trials of, 38; school house, 42; 
preacher, 43. 

Princeton Theological Seminary, 61. 

Pitcher, Dr. Z., 128. 

Primary Schools, 118. 

Pierce, Gen. Benjamin, 56. 
—Franklin B., 56. 
—Gad, 56. 
—David, 57. 
—Sarah Davis, 56. 
—James, 132. 
—Rev. Cyrus, Note 107. 
—John D., 5; quoted 8, — 14, 18, 
19, 20, 42. 46. 53; ancestors, 56, birth, 
56; death of father, 57; lives with 
an uncle. 57; love for books, 58; 
"Stubborn John." 58; conversion, 59; 
preparation for college, 59; gradu- 
ated from Brown University, 60; 
principal of an academy, 61 ; studies 
theology, 61; early writings, 62; 
extract from sermons, 63; first 
ministry at Sangerfield, N. Y., 66; 
marriage to Millicent Estabrook,66 ; 
organized a school, 67; a Mason, 
67; death of his wife, 68; trouble 



with his church, 68, quoted, 68; 
marriage to Mary Ann Cleveland, 
68; letter to Dr. Pond. 69; removed 
to Goshen, Conn., 71; appointed a 
missionary, 71; a pioneer in 
Michigan, 71; first sermon at Mar- 
shall, 74; his home, 75; or- 
ganized First Congregational 
Church, 76: death of wife, 76; 
his return to New York, 76; mar- 
iage to Harriet Reed, 77; return to 
Michigan, 77; meets Gen. Crary, 80; 
read Cousin's Report, 81; appoint- 
ed Superintendent of Public In- 
struction 81; visits the East to 
study education. 82; views upon the 
University, 86; his Educationa-1 
Doctrine, 88 ff.; meaning and aim 
of Education, 96 ff .; summary of 
Educational views, 102; his practical 
work as teacher, quoted, 103; Organ- 
ized education, 114, f f . ; work as 
Superintendent, 114; his problems, 
115; his reports. 115; Journal of 
Education, 124; return to the min- 
istry, 130: business failures, 130; 
member of the legislature, 131; 
controversy with railroad, 134: 
gave address at Ypsilanti, 136; 
member of Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1850, 136; removed 
to Ypsilanti, 139: offered edi- 
torial position, 139; death of son 
Augustus, 140; failing health, 140; 
visits Florida, 140; religion and 
politics, 141 ; County Superintendent 
of Schools, 141; "Personal Reminis- 
censes" by Dr. Putnam, 141; from 
1870-1880, 146; moved to Massachu- 
setts, 146; death, 146; grave at Mar- 
shall, 147; quotations from his 
writings, 150; place in history of 
education, 148. 
Pontiac, 27. 

Pontiac Manuscript, 128. 
Provincial. Consistory, 54. 



INDEX 



161 



Pond, Rev. Enoch, 59. 60, 61, 69. 
Prussian School System, 12, 106, 107, 

116, 118, 119, 152. 
Public Lands, 84. 

Putnam, Dr. Daniel, quoted, 50, 141. 
Physiology, 110. 
Psychology, 104. 

Q 

"Questions on Theology," 140. 



Ratke, 9. 

Raymbault, Charles, 22. 
''Railroad War," 134. 
Reading, 109. 
Reason, 105. 
Reed, Miss Harriet, 77. 
Report of Public Instruction in Prus- 
sia, 19, 52 ff. 
Religion, 100. 

Richard, Rev. Gabriel, 40, 41. 44. 
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 10, 
Round Hill School, 17. 
Royal Consistory, 53. 



Starkweather, John, 84. 

St. Clair, General, 27. 

Sault Ste. Marie, 22. 

Saint Marie du Sault, 22. 

State School System, constitutional 

provision in 1835, 51. 
Sangerfield, 66. 
Sandusky, 32. 
State Capital, 131. 
Sager, Dr. Abram, 128. 
Salaries, 108. 
State, The, 89; danger to, 92; spiritual 

creation, 93; protection of, 93. 
Self effort in Education, 97. 
Sheldon, Dr. E. A., 18. 
Stewart, Dugald, 63. 
Shearman, Francis W., 124, 
Spelling, 109. 
Spirit of the Pilgrims, The, 69. 



5:. Iguace, 23. 

Science, 7, 129. 

Science of Education, 102. 

Sources of Mr. Pierce's educational 
doctrine, 88. 

Social Contract, The, 11. 

Stowe, Prof. C. E., 18, 126, 

School, 95; grammar, 15; elementary, 
15; lands, 82; funds, distribution of, 
116; length of, 51; in territory. 40, 
42; organization of, 20; private, 151; 
agricultural, 20; normal, 20. 

School fund, 52. 

School house plans, 112, 118. 

School lands, 51, 52. 

School Inspectors, 117. 

School District, 116. 

School board— see District Board. 

Sugar beet, 128, 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
51,81, 121. 



Tauton Whig, 127. 

Training of teachers, 107. 

Taylor, J. Orville. 19, 52. 

Travel, mode of in early Michigan, 34. 

Taylor, P. H., quoted, 35. 

Thames, Battle of the, 30. 

Treaty of Westphalia, 9. 

Treaty of'1763, 26; 1783, 27. 

Territorial School System— four steps 
of development, 47; first law, 47 
Act of 1817, 48; Act of 1821, 49; dis 
trict system, 49; Act of 1828, 50 
summary, 50. 

Text-books, 20; in pioneer days, 43 
list of, 111. 

Teacher, Mr. Pierce as, 67, 71. 

Teachers' wages in pioneer days, 43. 

Teachers, trained, 20, 52, 107, 118, 151. 

Thirty Years' War, 9. 

Ticknor, George, 17. 

Tibbitts, J. S. quoted. 42. 

Trowbridge, C. C. 128. 

Township, 117. 



162 



INDEX 



Thompson, Rev. O. C, 45, 74. 

U 

Universe, The. 89. 
Universal Suffrage, 94, 
University of Michigan, 17, 84, 
University Branches, 107. 



Vaudreil, 26. 
Vickers, John, 38, 
Vicksburg, 38. 



Voyageurs, 25. 



W 



Watertown, 56. 

Wayne, Anthony, 28. 

Wrentham,'61, 

Will, 105. 

Willard, Hon. George, quoted, 38. 

Woodward, Joseph, 16, 41. 

Worcester, 82. 

Y 
Ypsilanti.84, 136, 139. 



AUG 12 '905, 



